After Today
by Aisyy
Summary: Danny and Sam go off to their first year of University. However Danny finds himself in trouble when he falls head over heals for one of his professors. Danny/Vlad slash.
1. Prologue

A/N: Not completely important, just interesting. Since Amity Park is fictional, there's no exact location for this city. I am taking a wild guess and saying Amity Park is somewhere in Illinois or Indiana because of how easily and quickly they get to Wisconsin all the time, with travel time - it makes sense. Look at a map of the US! Also in Urban Jungle, the roots spread from the Great Lakes to the rest of the world-this hints that, possibly, the Lake Eerie ("Girls Night Out", "Claw of the Wild") actually replaces the real Lake Erie. They can't be in Michigan. Elliot (Gregor) was from Michigan. There are other clues in the show hinting towards central US and near the Great Lakes.

I actually did research to back up my theory a bit people! Don't step all over my thoughts. This is only a theory of mine though. I personally think they are in Illinois, right next to Wisconsin and Lake Michigan.

For the purpose of this story they are going to be in Illinois! I was trying to be accurate. So, technically this is all relevant to the story. You'll get why once you start reading the prologue.

I don't normally start off with prologues but I felt it was necessary for this story. Back story is a good thing!

– Totally AU based story. No powers, no nothing'! Danny doesn't even know Vlad yet. Tucker isn't in this story as well. It's not that I don't like him just that he didn't fit into my plot. Sorry dude, nothing personal. I love you, really.

Finally, I want to apologize for a few things with this story, just a few. First off I'm sorry to people at Illinois State University for using their school. I don't go there and have never been. Second, I'm sorry if you get confused by my British slang. True I'm Canadian but we use it here too. I don't use American slang a whole lot. If you have a question over the meaning of one, just ask. Third, beware of product placement for this chapter. I try to keep it at a minimum but I couldn't help it. Write what you know eh? Yeah. Product placement includes brands like Converse and DVD box sets of TV shows – not a whole lot. Fourth and finally, the class Danny is in, I don't think is actually at the school he's going to, but it is at mine.

Alright, I'm taking up too much of your reading time. ENJOY!

After Today by: Aisyy (Oliver Elijah)

Prologue

"You're not bringing those with you." Sam said bluntly, pointing a finger down at her best friend's feet.

Danny looked down at his shoes, a pair of hot pink Converse, which he loved. He pouted wiggling a foot childishly. "What's wrong with them?" He asked sheepishly, knowing full well what her answer was going to be.

"Danny they're pink." Sam grumbled. She hated pink.

"So? I like them."

Danny smiled despite the criticism. Sam had been nice enough to help him pack up his things for school. The two friends were heading to Illinois State University and Danny was excited beyond anything because A) he was getting out of Amity Park and B) he was going to be at the same school as a friend. Even though Sam personally wanted to go to Chicago State, but for some bullshit reason didn't get accepted. She found this to be a huge insult to her on so many levels.

And unfortunately for the both of them their other friend Tucker was abandoning them to go to Technical College to work with computers. He still wished his friends the best of luck at school and promised to send them an e-mail when ever he could.

"Fine be that way."

While trying to pack Sam couldn't help but throw in a small "comment" or two over the clothes Danny was choice to bring with him. She looked in his suitcase questionably. True their styles were on completely difference ends of the spectrum; Sam being Goth after all and Danny choice to run around dressed like a human rainbow. She stuck her tongue out over the brightly coloured shirts Danny has packed.

"I remember back when you wouldn't wear any of this stuff. I was so proud of you then." She mocked with a smile. Danny returned the grin throwing a red sweat shirt into his suitcase. She was right of course. Back in junior high and freshman year of high school Danny would have rather died than wear such flashy clothes. He was all about blending in, not standing out.

However, somewhere between sophomore year and senior Danny pulled a U turn and changed a lot. He was still the unpopular, semi cute boy-next-door type and didn't stand out a lot, but his social life jumped from invisible background geek to the school's resident poof. Yes, Danny was gay. It didn't take a genius to figure it out which was why hardly anyone was shocked by it when he came out in the eleventh grade to his friends and family. It took a grand total of four days for everyone at school to know about it as well. The rumor mill in high school works like that. It wasn't a bad things, no one teased him; no more than usual anyways. He just became the one gay kid at his school that everyone knew. Because of this he actually became comfortable in himself. Danny started to take a notice in how he looked from then on and changed what he wore and how he did his hair.

Today was just a boring, slow day during the last week of his summer break before his first year of university. While at home he wasn't going to put effort into his appearance. So, he wore a regular pair of jeans and a short sleeve white t-shirt, along with the pink Converse Sam hated. His short black hair was a bit messy but he didn't care enough to fix it any more then brushing his bangs out of his eyes. On a good day Danny would be all decked out in an array of styles, meshing together emo, scene and geek to one completely personal fashion which made him draw the eye of a few people.

Next to Danny, Sam only seemed more Goth the longer you looked between the two. She only ever wore black, black, a little purple, and more black. A lazy summer day like this didn't change that either, being dressed up in black skinny jeans and a black tank top. Sam didn't need approval from anyone else to know she looked good.

"So, besides packing more clothes than Tucker and I own put together, are you planning on bringing anything useful?" Sam asked sarcastically.

Danny nodded happily jumping across his room in a second to his window where a large telescope sat. "I wouldn't leave my baby here if you paid me! I can't wait to get her up in my dorm room. I bet there's a really good view." Sam was amused by her friend's obsession with space and his telescope. Danny had once planned to be an astronaut and go into space when he was younger but he was no where close to meeting the physical requirements needed to join the space program. This made Danny pretty miserable for quite a while when he found out.

"Rrrright." Sam mused browsing through Danny's shelves. They were packed tight with books, comics, CDs and movies. Sam shook her head. Danny was such a packrat. She though. "Just promise me you're going to use that thing to look at stars and not stalk all the boys from your dorm window. Please." Behind her Danny scoffed.

"I wouldn't do that!" He squeaked in embarrassment.

"Sure you wouldn't." Sam teased, laughing. Whether or not Danny would do such a thing was a toss up. If he did, it would be out of curiosity or extreme temptation, not so much a passing desire to check out the boys.

Danny went over to his bed and plopped himself down next to his suitcase. He began digging through his clothes to create more room.

"What do you want out of all these?" Sam asked picking up a pile of CDs.

"Not sure. I don't listen to half of those now that I got my new mp3." Danny thought about it for a moment. "How about you just hand over my Hawksley Workman CD?"

"Garbage." Sam practically sang as she threw the CD case like a Frisbee. Danny caught it easily in one and tucked it away amongst his clothes. He also gave Sam a dirty look for referring to one of his favorite artists and trash. They went on like this for a while, sorting through the CDs and movies Danny had, deciding what to take and what to leave behind. A few of the only things Sam didn't have a negative comment about was Danny bringing along season one through four of Supernatural. This made Sam very happy. She even found it funny when Danny demanded he bring along the few seasons he had of Queer as Folk.

They managed to get most of Danny's things packed in only a few hours. Danny had even won the debate over his shoes. Who ever said being stubborn was a bad quality in a person?

"You think you're going to miss Amity Park Sam?" Danny asked shoving a forgotten belt into a pock on his suitcase. She shook her head dramatically. 

"No way. Amity Park is nothing special. It's boring. I'm ready to leave. Although I rather being going to Chicago damn it!"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"What about you Danny, gonna miss your mommy?" Sam asked, earning her a glare in response.

"No. They're only a drive away, what's there to miss? I want to just go already."

"Looking for adventure? You're not going to find it here."

"Obviously. I'm not exactly looking for anything. I just need a change in scenery. You're the adventure seeker, wanting to go to Chicago, alone."

"It would be fun; a big city, the sights, interesting people," Sam informed him.

"Good point." Danny nodded. "I doubt we're going meet anyone interesting at school this year."

"It's pretty unlikely." Sam agreed.

A/N: Fun facts:

This story was named after Max's song at the beginning of the Goofy Movie with the same title. Why? The lyrics don't really fit the plot and he's singing about a girl. Yeah, I know, but in a weird way when you think about it really hard and throw in some subplot, it works with my story.

Did you know that Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette Reynolds - HBO's True Blood) was from Illinois?

Ok so the Prologue is pretty short. They normally are. Chapter one shall be longer, promise. Please review and tell me what you think of the back story. I like to get messages from you guys! Hugs go out to all of you.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Oh my GOD! You know what, fuck it! Hi people! Long wait I know, sorry and all that. MOVING ON!

Thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoy the first real chapter to this fanfic. You should all feel very special because I wrote this before working on So Much for Plan A, my Powerpuff Girls fanfic, which has been out much longer and hasn't been updated since before this. Oh, I look forward to the angry e-mails. Believe me, I already got a few. HAHAhahaaa... Indeed.

Ok this is mostly background and introductions to other characters and mild conflict/plot establishment. So it is a traditional first chapter to anything. Awesome! It jumps around in time a whole lot too so I apologize. I just wanted to get everything in there and not leave out a big chunk of stuff – even though if I left a few things out it wouldn't change anything. It would be only shorter and less interesting to read. And I like to ramble if you guys haven't figured that out yet. I do. It's fun!

Please don't bitch at me for my spelling and grammar errors. I have the flu! Currently I can't speak, think or breathe. Give me a break.

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to my God: Butch Hartman. Although... if I married him could I get some legal rights to the show? *evil grin* Damn, that is definitely something I would do!

oOo

Chapter One: Buckets O' Fun

Danny smiled to himself. Today was the day he'd been looking forward to for some time now, the day he was leaving home. It was almost bittersweet in a way. Leaving was only temporary but it was the principle of the thing. He didn't care if it was a year or a month; Danny was getting out on his own. Danny let out an amused snicker and ruffled a hand through his hair.

'Danny! Come on Sport!'

Danny rolled his eyes hearing his dad calling him from downstairs. He still had a long way to freedom. Four hours in a van with his parents babbling away about work was going to make it a long day.

The Fenton's were ghost hunters, it's what they did. Both of Danny's parents hunted and studied ghosts for a living and growing up it was near to impossible to get away from it all. They were ghost obsessed. His sister Jazz had booked it off to University half a year early due to her above perfect grades, leaving Danny to suffer alone through lecture after lecture about ghosts from his mom and dad. And his dad Jack could talk, unfortunately none of it was intelligent nor did it ever stop. Danny loved his dad and all, but the man's rants got exhausting after eighteen years.

With a deep sigh Danny did a quick once over of his room, wondering if he has forgotten anything. At this point it really didn't matter. Shrugging it off easily Danny grabbed his cell from his desk and put it in the back pocket of his jeans. At least he'll be able to complain to Sam during the road trip. Well, sort of complain to her. Danny was well aware of how aggravated she was going to be today. Frankly, the thought was scary.

Sam was driving out to their new school with her parents as well. Sam and her parents have an _interesting_ relationship, to put it nicely. Her parents were old-fashioned in a "stereotypical, well bread, 50's conformity' kind of way - if that makes any sense. They are neat and proper and quite the opposite of their daughter. Danny found it humorous on more than a dozen occasions to see them interact with each other; normally ending with Sam desperately hiding from her mother, who seemed to be on a constant mission to turn Sam into a _lovely young lady_. It was hard to believe that the three were related at all.

As if like clockwork Danny's cell phone buzzed. He quickly took it out and opened the text message he had just gotten from his distressed friend.

'**Danny! ... Kill me!'** – Sam

Danny smiled as he read her message. He typed a small witty reply before returning his phone to his pocket and exiting his bedroom.

Downstairs his parents were waiting for him. His bags were already in the van. All that was needed now was him. Danny forced a cheery grin for his parents benefit. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the car ride. All families had to go through this sort of thing at least once. Being closed into a small, hot vehicle for hours on end and no escape unless you wanted to jump out of said moving vehicle and risk your life. To Danny, it sounded very tempting.

oOo

Of course Danny had been correct about the drive. Jack was rambling out a long story about ghosts with no end in sight. Danny had gotten pretty good at drowning out his dad's voice and yet keeping tuned in just enough to answer him if need be, though the only answer Jack needed was a few mumbles in agreement or a nod of the head. After that he would only continue what he was saying, perfectly content in his own little world of ignorance. Sometimes Danny had to wonder how in hell his mother put up with it for so long. Some cheesy and clique line about true love came to mind.

For the first hour Danny had easily managed to ignore his parents chatting up in the front of the van. He sat in the back, staring blankly out the window in between texts with Sam. The city rolled by slowly. Soon enough the buildings gave away to nothing but trees and highway. Danny felt a large happy smile unconsciously form on his lips. He was finally out of Amity Park for the next four months.

Danny dragged out his phone from his pocket. He was going send a text to Sam, but noticed that while he was in his blank trance watching the city disappear from sight, Sam had left a number of angry messages about her parents and why he hadn't replied to any of them. A twinge of guilt gnawed at his stomach. He was not going to hear the end of this.

Occasionally Danny couldn't help but compare Sam to a scorned girlfriend. She acted a lot like one. She got mad at him for a lot of stupid little things, along with things he actually deserved to get yelled at for: breaking a promise, running off on her, thinking that eating a hamburger was totally o.k.! It was at these times which she was pissed off at him and/or Tucker that he remembered that she could be rather frightening.

And of course it made Danny remember that they had once dated, briefly, long ago back before he knew anything about his sexuality. He had been a hormonal teen fresh out of puberty. He'd have gone after anything at the time and since the typical thing for a boy his age was a pretty girl, Danny ended up going out with his best friend. It didn't last very long though, a few months. It was an average length for a junior high romance. They had broken up over mutual differences: neither was really into the idea of dating each other. They were friends and knew it was a lot better off staying that way.

Danny sent a quick apology to Sam for not replying sooner. It didn't take long for her to get back to him. Her attention must have been primarily on her phone. Danny wouldn't blame her for it either.

'**Bitch, leave me now and I will murder you. Then you can become a ghost and your parents can hunt you down!'** –Sam

'I said sorry!' – Danny

'**Screw it! I just want out of this fucking car!'**

'Parents getting to you? You should hear mine.'

'**Rather not, thanks. I get enough of your parents as is.'**

'They aren't so bad.'

'**True. OK here's the deal, I'll take your place and you can take mine.'**

'Nice try. No!'

'**You suck Danny.'**

'Nah, I'm just evil.'

'**lol You wish you were you poof.'**

'Well then Goth Kid what am I?'

'**A dork!'**

'Gee thanks!'

oOo

The first hour and a half went by pretty smoothly. Now he just had to concentrate on getting through the last two and a half. Danny groaned inwardly. He was definitely contemplating jumping from the car. It seemed like a wonderful idea. His dad had segued into what felt like his five billionth story since the road trip had started, and it was beginning to become hard to ignore. Danny lent his head back against the window and closed his eyes.

There was always something about long car trips that Danny never liked. Yes part of it had to do with his parents. That was a given. The other half of it was that he always found himself impossibly tired after a certain amount of time. Danny yawned quietly as he opened his eyes to look out the window once more. The sky was growing dark and cloudy for the middle of the afternoon. 'Damn, looks like rain...' Danny thought.

Danny tugged at the neck of his zip-up sweater. He slumped down into his seat trying to get comfortable. Well, as comfortable and you can get in a cramped van. With another yawn Danny closed his eyes again and tried to get some sleep. He hoped that with any luck he'd wake up and be at school. 'Damn,' Danny chuckled to himself. 'That's a depressing thought.' What was even more depressing was that this was how he was spending his last day of summer, in a car with his parents. He started classes tomorrow.

Danny grumbled incoherent curses about homework before nodding off to sleep.

oOo

It might not have been the best of naps but Danny managed to get through the rest of the trip drifting in and out of sleep. When Danny finally opened his eyes he was greeted by the dreary scene of a rainy street corner. Cars zipped past his window splashing up water droplets onto the glass as they past. It wasn't the nicest day out but Danny wasn't about to take a little bit of rain as a bad omen. He yawned and stretched out his back.

"Ah! I see you're finally awake sweetie." Maddie smiled back at Danny front the front passenger seat. Danny nodded tiredly and returned her smile.

"Yeah mom I'm up. Did I miss anything or can I go back to sleep?"

"We'll be at your new home in a few minutes. Unfortunately Danny, due to the rain we're probably going to have to leave soon after dropping you off. Will you be alright on your own?" Danny tried to ignore his mother's protective concern and did his best to sweetly informer her that he'd be alright.

It took no less than fifteen minutes for the Fenton's van to arrive at the residence buildings of Danny's new school. They were large and pretty nice, nothing like how Danny pictured them to be. Due to movies and TV Danny always thought residences at universities were pretty shitty – to say the least – old drafty buildings, broken windows that have to be wedged open, etc.

From his window Danny watched groups of students and parents running back and forth from cars and the building, hovering over boxes and suitcases to keep them dry. It was funny to watch, though when the time came that Danny had to get out and carry his things inside, he wasn't laughing. With a pout Danny trudged through the rain, his parents' right behind him.

It was another two hour before Danny could actually sit down again. He had to go hunting for the key to his room, school ID, some other forms to fill out, and back to the van for more stuff. Exhausted from all the walking and standing Danny plopped down onto his new unmade bed. The thing was stiff but it would have to do. Danny exhaled in exasperation.

It was a small room and nothing all too spectacular, beige walls and a hard floor. There was one bed, a desk and chair, an open closet - simple enough for a student. It wasn't as if Danny needed a large space. He didn't have that much crap.

Around his small single room Jack and Maddie placed down their son's various boxed and bags. They smiled proudly over at Danny.

"Looks like you don't need us anymore Danny." Jack said moving towards the door. He huffed as he cracked his back. Jack was a large man, carrying heavy items wasn't something he was good at.

Danny got off his bed and thanked his parents. Before Danny could object, Maddie had him wrapped up in her arms tightly. From the glossy look in her eyes he could tell she was going to cry.

"Mom you're not going to cry, are you?" Danny asked. Maddie sniffed letting go of her son.

"It's hard not to Danny. It's going to be so quiet without you around the house."

"You have dad. It's never going to be quiet." Danny offered.

Maddie laughed, "Just promise to behave yourself and work hard."

"And if you happen to run into any ghosts out here, use this!" Jack said eagerly, thrusting a steel cylinder into Danny's hands.

Danny looked down at it. "Uhmm... Dad... it's a thermos." He commented in bewilderment.

"The Fenton Thermos! Guaranteed to capture any ghost!"

"Yea...ok... Thanks dad?" Danny blinked, still a bit confused but Jack just beamed happily.

"Well," Maddie said looking between Danny and Jack. "I guess it's time we should start heading back to Amity Park. The rain doesn't look like it's going to get any better any time soon."

"Alright, have a good drive home."

Again Danny was pulled into a tight hug by both his parents. They said their goodbyes and all that before heading out. Danny was pretty much trying to hurry them out of the room as fast as he could by this point. Soon enough they had gone, leaving Danny to himself. With a satisfied grin Danny closed his door before moving to flop over onto his bed. _'Yeah, this bed is shit...'_ Danny thought as he laid there on his stomach.

oOo

The next morning passed by fast. Before Danny realised it, it was going on four. The night before Sam had stopped by for a little while to help unpack but mostly just to make a mess of Danny's dorm room. She claims the scattered clothes and unorganized desk gave the room a much more 'lived in' appeal.

Today, while going by pretty quickly, was also pretty stressful. Danny had no idea where he had to be and kept getting lost even when walking in a straight line. He had to buy some books later and try and find his last class of the day. However, finding his class was much more important to him because it was the one he had been looking forward to all day: Astronomy 1000: Intro to the Galaxy, taught by a Mr. M. His class schedule didn't come with his professor's full names on it. A space saver for printing purposes or some kind of bull shit like that. Oh well, he'd find out later.

His class was pretty easy to find once he found the correct science building. Actually, it was pretty hard to miss. His class was in a large auditorium with high seating. The size was impressive. The room looked like it could hold a few hundred people. Danny picked a seat a few rows in and close to the middle. Since he found this class the most interesting out of anything he was taking, he wanted to be able to hear and see what was going on. Danny relaxed back in his chair, watching as other students started to file into the room at random.

Of course, just like anywhere else in life, Danny felt a bit out of place next to all these new people. Most of the other students in his class looked like they were supposed to be there: professionally dressed, laptops, textbook in hand. Danny shifted as people crowded in the spots next to him. He discreetly tried to straighten his plain grey long sleeve shirt. It was easy to do since it was a slim fitting shirt and hugged his sides. Danny couldn't really do anything about it faded skinny jeans. He was an odd ball in high school and he'd be an odd ball here as well. With a sigh of defeat Danny sunk down in his chair and waited for class to start. He frowned at how long he was waiting. The professor was almost five minutes late. This was university, weren't people suppose to be on time here? He had shown up on time. Back in high school that was something he very rarely managed to do.

Just as the five minute mark ticked by a tall serious looking man in his early to mid forties strode into the room. He stood before the class silently, looking about as if he were judging everyone there. The man had a sense of sophistication about him but it was buried in the wave of arrogance that came from him. Just by looking at him Danny could peg his new teacher as pompous and self absorbed. Now Danny was going to have to put up with this guy twice a week for the next four months.

Danny propped his elbows up on the desk before him and rested his chin in his palms. He couldn't help but stare a little at his teacher. There was something odd about him that Danny couldn't put his finger on. By the dramatic entrance and just from the way he held himself said so much about his character. It was almost hard to believe this guy was for real. Danny saw a small smirk cross his teachers face; it looked like he was amused with something. Rolling his eyes Danny sat back again and looked down at his desk, restlessly tapping his pen on the cover of his binder.

He raised his eyes only for a moment. That's when Danny met the chilly gaze of his teacher. It last no longer than a millisecond but it left Danny feeling dazed and winded, as if he'd just gotten hit in the head with a snow ball. The hairs on the back of his neck were on end. Danny was starting to really dislike this guy immensely.

"Hello class," finally the man said in a deep rich voice. "I'm Mr. Masters, your Astronomy teacher for this semester."

oOo

**A/N2:** Oh who saw that coming? Yeah I know you all did. Zip it.

Dudes for the record my dorm at school is kind of crappy. It's not bad but it does kinda suck. My window's broken and doesn't open but it's broken in a way that is lets in a draft during the winter. Coooold! Then again I'm in the crappiest out of the three residence buildings at SMU in Halifax at the moment. Next year with any luck I get to go to Ontario and go to a really awesome college that I'm dying to get into. And why they have really nice on campus housing, I can live at home and not pay the extra few thousand dollars.

Ok truth time. I'm basing Danny's dorm off of mine and my friend Theta's because I'm a lazy bugger with the flu and don't feel like looking up pictures of accurate ones for this school. So there ya go!

Also, I took Astronomy in my first semester at SMU. Fun times people!

Does anyone like my random references to the show? I was finding them kind of funny when I was writing this. *Smiles*

Please leave a comment before you go! It is much appreciated! xoxoxo


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys! Look an update! You should all review this chapter and love me for it! I don't know, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I do like getting reviews though.

Uhmm... I should mention that if I accidentally capitalized anything really random in my writing I apologize for it. I do that occasionally after taking a year of German classes. They capitalize all their nouns. So now I keep doing it by accident.

Disregard the title to this chapter. Badgers don't really eat Froot Loops. It's a play on words. You know what I'm talking about. Yes I know Vlad's nick name is 'Fruit' Loop. I'm just giving Kellogg's some credit since it is their cereals' name. Oh there's your disclaimer for you. As for disclaiming the show, I did that in the last chapter. I won't be doing it again unless I come up with some witty thing to say for it. Not that I'm all too witty but who gives a shit? Moving along now...

oOo

Chapter Two: Badgers like Froot Loops

"Gah!" Danny cried, slamming a fist down on top of the table in front of him. The two cups of coffee sitting on the surface shook. The one closest to Danny spilt over the top and onto the table.

"I fucking hate that guy!"

Danny had just come from another astronomy class with Mr. V. Masters. From the first two classes alone he had gotten together a pretty good picture of what his new professor was like as a person. He didn't like what he was seeing at all. The older man was so full of himself in absolutely every single way. He was always dressed in an expensive suit. His voice was cultured and snobbish. He stood with his head held high like he was some sort of king. Danny thought the man needed a reality check big time.

"So you've said, _many_ times!" Sam assured her friend, mildly irritated over how many times she'd heard those words in the past half hour. She took hold of her coffee cup to stop it from jiggling.

"He's just so...so-" Danny didn't know the write word to use.

"Pompous? Conceited? Arrogant? Pretentious? Take your pick, I could keep going." Sam said sarcastically.

"All of the above!" Danny sighed. "He's a very high and mighty kind of guy. I mean just the way he carries himself is pompous; looking down on everyone like they aren't worth his time and will never amount to anything."

"Yup, sounds like a university professor to me. They aren't meant to teach but are still paid to do it." Sam said into her coffee cup. She took a sip as Danny continued his rushed rant.

"Mr. Masters is just such a-a..."

"Egotist?" Sam offered.

"YES!" Danny yelled throwing himself back in his chair.

"Danny stop yelling. We're in the cafeteria." Sam said with a huff. She loved Danny dearly but sometimes she thought he was so immature.

"So? You don't care what other people think." He pointed out.

"No, but it echoes. And I can hear you just fine from where I am. You don't need to yell."

Danny sighed and sat forward again. He apologized quietly. Picking up his coffee cup Danny proceeded to stare at the dark brown liquid inside. There was a long moment of silence between the two friends. Sam cocked an eyebrow at Danny's change in behaviour. In the time their break together had started to now, Danny had been doing nothing but complaining about one of his teachers. Sam now regretted asking Danny how his class went. Even though he hadn't said one word about the _class_ its self yet. She'd almost start teasing Danny for having a little love/hate crush on the man if she wasn't scared she'd get bitched at for the rest of the year.

And the end of the year was a long way away.

"Danny, if the guy bothers you so much why don't you just drop the class?" Sam asked, taking a sip of her hot black coffee.

"I can't, it's a prerequisite. If I don't take it I can't get into any of the later astronomy classes."

"Oh... That sucks."

"Yeah it does," Danny grumbled and started to get up. He threw his backpack over his shoulder and straightened out his red t-shirt. "I have to go buy my Astronomy textbook before the bookstore closes. There's going to be a lot of people there... It could take a good hour or so to get out. Do you want the rest of my coffee Sam?"

"Hell no!" Sam gave him a disgusted look. "You put cream and three sugars into that thing. That is not coffee. You turned it into liquid sugar."

Danny laughed at Sam's descriptive opinion. She was always good at that.

He smiled and said a quick goodbye before leaving the cafeteria.

The University Bookstore was a good walk from the cafeteria. It was pretty much all the way across campus, a good twenty minute walk on a good day. Today fortunately was a good day. The sun was out, the rain clouds were gone, and the air was warm. Danny strolled out of the Residence building with a certain lack of enthusiasm about going to the bookstore. First of all he was losing interest in his class because of his teacher, and second it was the beginning of the year and the bookstore was bound to be packed with student and teachers trying to buy their textbooks.

Of course when Danny got to the student union building where the bookstore was, his suspicions were greatly confirmed. It was so full he has to push his way in through the front door.

Danny manoeuvred his way around stands of sweaters, hats, travel mugs and other various items of school paraphernalia. The bookstore wasn't hard to navigate through, just annoying. It was over packed with tables filled with binders and pens, highlighters, you name it. Then you fill the empty space with people and you see the problem. Danny had to squeeze his way through the crowd to get to the back.

The book room was separate from the rest of the store. It had its own entrance off the back wall. The book room its self was organized pretty well. All the books were arranged by class so all the business texts were off to the right, the law books were to the left, etc. Danny's book however was in the back corner passed the language and psychology textbooks.

While passing through the law books Danny had to stop and snicker to himself. Some of the books were on sale for a few hundred dollars. The subject alone made Danny's head spin, let alone the price of one textbook.

"Good thing I hate law..." Danny muttered as he walked down the row of books towards the back corner.

He finally made it to his section where the Astronomy books were.

The shelves were arranged in order by class. Danny quickly skimmed through them trying to find what he was looking for. On the top shelf near the end of the row Danny found his class's spot. And keeping with tradition of Danny's horrible luck, the shelf space was empty.

"Of course..." Danny groaned in aggravation. "It's sold out."

Danny looked around on the other shelves to see if a copy of his textbook might be hiding somewhere; nothing. In frustration Danny cursed out loud and smacked a hand down onto the empty metal shelf.

"Language Mr. Fenton,"

Danny spun around to see who had addressed him and ended up coming face to face with someone he really didn't want to see, Mr. Masters. Up close he stood a good head taller than Danny. His long white hair was loosely pulled back. Danny wondered how someone, no older than his own parents, could have such white hair; it looked almost died. But in a weird way, it looked good on him. The white hair slightly seemed to soften his strong facial features. Danny had to admit he looked almost handsome this close, but he'd never say it out loud. This was still his overly stuck up teacher whom he disliked so much.

This time Danny swore inwardly, hating his bad luck. This was the last person Danny wanted to see right now. He breathed a half assed apology and was about to walk away without another word when Danny noticed that the older man in front of him was holding a copy of the class textbook.

"Is that the last copy of the textbook?" Danny asked, pointing to the thick hard cover textbook under his teacher's arm.

"Yes, it is. I always pick up a spare copy. You never know when you might need one." He said holding it out in front of him. "However, I see you were looking for this."

Danny blinked, surprised by the gesture. He had thought Mr. Masters to be a bit more selfish then this. Some of his teachers in the past would have been and gave an excuse about how Danny deserves it for putting off buying his school books. But the thought was nice of this man and Danny for a moment didn't know how to react to it. He was almost speechless. What do you say to someone you just spent the better part of an hour bashing and then they turn around and go and do something nice for you?

"You'd let me have it?" Danny asked as if he'd heard Mr. Masters incorrectly. He smiled stupidly as he reached out to take the book from him with gratitude.

"I can't have one of my students falling behind." Mr. Masters said handing Danny the book. He too gave a soft smile as he spoke. "It would not reflect well upon me."

Just when Danny was starting to rethink his opinion of the guy, he was proven wrong. The idea of this man being kind was just thrown right out the window. Danny looked at his teacher, desperately trying to fight off the urge to call him a total dick. Danny decided that this man must have just been born with a superiority complex. He still took the book however and thanked him.

"Thank you... Mr. Masters," Danny tried his best not to sound sarcastic, or like he was forcing it.

"Of course," The older man said giving Danny a strange look. Danny guessed he could hear the cynical tone in his voice. "I'll see you in class Mr. Fenton."

As his teacher turned to go Danny couldn't help but correct him.

"My name's Danny." He said sternly. Danny hated being referred to by his last name like that. He had been addressed by it so often by a certain middle school teacher, that it now drove him insane every time it happened.

Mr. Masters turned to look back at Danny with mild amusement. Their eyes locked. Danny stared into the stormy eyes of his teacher and found it next to impossible to look away. His dark blue eyes looked almost grey. They weren't as chilling as they had been on the first day of class. Now they seemed warm, caring, and yet troubled. Danny wondered how he must look to this older gentleman, a nervous boy staring like a deer in the headlights. He felt like a self conscious dork.

"My apologies then, Daniel." He said politely before walking away.

Danny watched him leave with strong curiosity. It was hard to say how he felt about his new teacher. One minute he seemed to be the most proud, overly snobbish man you could ever meet, and the next he almost seemed human and capable of emotion. Danny found the whole situation confusing and he could feel his face grow red with frustration, or at least he hoped it was frustration. Those dark eyes looking at him with such interest it left him feeling both creeped out and charmed.

Danny couldn't make sense of what was running through his head at the moment but he felt almost hypnotized. It was like looking watching a slasher flick, you get grossed out and scared but you can't look away because of curiosity. Now Danny was just making himself confused by letting his mind wander. His thoughts weren't making any sense even to him.

"Wait..." Danny said to himself, catching up to his wandering thoughts. "What the fuck am I thinking? He is one seriously crazed up Fruit Loop."

Without a second thought about what had just happened, Danny went to go pay for his textbook.

By the time Danny got back to his dorm room he was in a foul mood. He was sure his day couldn't possibly get worse. After the situation in the bookstore Danny was suffering from a massive headache. Closing the door behind him, Danny was leaned back and groaned. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to chill out. He was in the mood to punch something hard. How could one man cause someone to feel so worked up with a look?

Danny was able to enjoy the silence of his dorm room for only a moment. The second he started to relax his cell phone started to buzz from a pocket of his book bag. He slipped the phone out and tossed the bag onto his bed. Seeing the number he answered with a reluctant sigh.

"Hey Sam,"

"_Boy you sound happy..."_ Sam said on the other end of the line.

"Don't go to the bookstore right now." Danny answered. "It gave me a nasty headache."

"_Are you ok?"_

"Yeah fine..." Danny didn't feel like bringing up the odd encounter he had with his teacher. He'd probably end up telling Sam eventually, but for now he was feeling sick. It wasn't really a physical sickness. This kind of nausea was pulling at his emotions and left him mentally drained.

"_Are we still on for dinner?"_ Sam asked after a pause.

"Uh..." Danny thought for a moment sitting down in his desk chair. "I don't know. I think I might just stay in. I'm not hungry."

"_The caf closes at 8." _

"I know. My uh... headache's making me feel kinda gross."

It wasn't a total lie. It was actually true. Danny wanted to just go to bed and make the twist in his gut go away.

"_Do you need me to bring you something? I have a really good organic tea that's great for migraines."_

"Heh... Sure, why not."

"_Alright! I also found a health food store not far from campus. I can go run over and grab us something to eat before stopping by."_

"Greeaaat..." Danny was starting to regret saying yes to this.

"_Honestly Danny, it's good for you and it's delicious." _

"Alright, I'm sure it couldn't make me feel any worse." – Though it just might...

"I'll see you soon Danny."

"Bye Sam." He hung up and leaned back, swaying slightly in the spinning deck chair. Danny guessed his night might not be all bad if Sam came over. It would get his mind off things.

Unfortunately for Danny, he had been wrong. Sam trip had only aggravated his head to an extent that it was making him feel worse. He felt sea sick on dry land.

Danny went to bed that night, his head swimming. He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. The fog in his mind softening to puffy dream clouds, warm and soft grey blue clouds.

A/N: Well that was chapter two. Fun times eh? If you liked it please review. If not, review anyways because I say so.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Have I told you guys how much I love you lately? This is only the third real chapter to this fic and it is now the most watched story I have. And it is the second most favourited. I feel so loved. Feel free to post more reviews too. It's always helpful. And the more reviews I get, the more motivation I have to write. This was a longer chapter than usual. I made it so because of all the wonderful people who added me to their alert list.

Writing this chapter reminded me of all the stress that comes with university. I wasn't cut out for the courses I was taking. New school for me in September! I'm no longer taking physiology. I feel like I could have been good at it, but it's not what I want to be doing. I'm no Jazz. HA! Maybe I'll go back to it in a few years if it doesn't work out with my new program but I'm not sure yet.

While I am writing this I am currently moving one again to St. Thomas, Ontario. I realise that I have moved a lot in the past little while. At least four times in the past two years. Well, two were temporary and one was moving into my school dorm room... Maybe I'm over counting. I am just being given a lot of free time now to write which is nice.

Please enjoy chapter three. Read and Review at your leisure. And go ahead and leave out anything about my bad grammar and spelling. If you're going to comment on that just don't bother.

oOo

Chapter Three: Jedi Mind Tricks

Danny doesn't hate school. No, he hates teachers. It wasn't a personal hate. None of his teachers seemed to have it out for him personally. They had too many other students to worry about. But they were always busy with someone else, and worst of all, they were stupid. Not really, most of them were impressively smart doctors or professional something-or-others. What made them, in Danny's opinion, morons was that none of them knew how to teach. They didn't explain things properly, they were unorganized, and couldn't grasp the concept of homework.

This is what Danny though this particular Friday morning as he sat at his desk, chin resting in his hand. He stared down at the mount of paper in front of him: assignments, essays, take home work, etc. A pencil was tapped against the papers, making a repetitive clicking sound in the quiet room. A cool breeze blew in through the open window next to Danny. It picked up a few of his papers and scattered them across the floor.

Danny let out a frustrated yell and stood up. He dropped the pencil to the desk top.

"God damn it!" He seethed, slamming the window shut. Today, Danny was not a happy camper. It was the middle of October now, less than a month till midterms and Danny had at least two huge assignments to do for each of his classes. This was his biggest issue with the teachers he had. They always put off assigning anything till the last minute before exams and expect you to get them done on time, and study, and pass. Danny was feeling so stressed out that he thought his head was going to explode.

He sighed and ruffles his dark hair.

Gathering up all the paper work that was blown to the floor, he out it back up in the desk. Slumping back down into his desk chair Danny grumbled a few made up swear words. Stressed and tired, Danny closed his eyes. He had a few weeks to get his work done and handed in. It was perfectly doable, if he didn't have to study or do anything else that might get added to his work load, which was likely.

He was going to get back to work when his cell phone buzzed. Danny went to grab it but only saw white paper. He shuffled threw the pile trying to find his phone. The ringing eventually stopped and a disgruntled Danny let his head fall to the desk. It hit with a loud thud.

"Ow..." He said casually. It didn't occur to him that it would actually hurt that much. Picking his head up, he rubbed at the red mark left on his forehead. A small twinge of a headache was starting to form on the right side of his head now. He guessed he had done stupider things in the past, but that was just a dumb move.

Danny brushed a paper away and moves his pencil case to the side. He found his phone, the "1 missed call" screen lit up. Checking to see who it was Sam's number came up.

"Might as well call back..." Danny said dialling her number. It rang for a second. Even though he was on the other end of the line, Danny could hear Sam's ringtone in his head. During the summer, right after graduation, there was a street fair going on downtown in Amity Park. Sam had gotten some audio recording of some crazy ass violinist who could play pretty much any song in under a minute. Ever since, her ringtone was a 30 second violin recording of Carnival of Rust by Poets of the Fall. Danny thought of it of more as a creepy high pitched wail than music, but Sam was thrilled.

"Hey Danny," Sam said when she answered.

"Hey. You called me a second ago?"

"Yeah I did. You busy? You didn't answer your phone." She asked curiously.

"Pfff... No. Unless you consider a desk full of work busy. I swear teacher get together and plan when they are going to hand out large amounts of work." Danny complained as he moved from his chair to his bed. He needed to lie down.

"I have some work too but I think I can handle it." The confidence in her voice made Danny want to smack her. Sam liked to gloat about things and it always made Danny feel worse.

"Yeah good for you... jerk." Danny replied.

"Bitch," Sam shot back.

"Barbie."

"Prat,"

"Thanks... Why did you call anyways?" Their witty repartee was fun and all but Danny had homework to get done.

"If you're busy it can wait. It's nothing important. I can call back."

"Don't bother. I'm not getting anywhere with my homework. I've been working on it since yesterday and I haven't made a dent." Danny said before flopping face first into his pillow.

"Oh poor muffin," She teased.

"Fmmm Uuu Bfff" Danny said, muffled by the pillow material in his mouth.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Fuck you bitch." He repeated sitting up again.

"Bite me you girl."

"Ok stop." Danny didn't want to start that again. "You called. What it is?"

"Grumpy much?" She asked sarcastically.

"I'm stressed!"

"No need to yell at me. You know if you are having so much trouble getting your work done, why don't you talk to one of your teachers. You could get some help, maybe even an extension."

While Sam had a point, Danny didn't agree.

"Sam, they won't give me an extension. It's too close to midterms."

"You could at least go for some extra help."

"I don't need help. I need more time." Danny was a bit aggravated and he hoped Sam could tell. He didn't need a friend mad at him too. Sam sighed and dismissed getting yelled at again.

"Whatever Danny, I just wanted to know if you were busy. I'm hungry and I want lunch." Sam said giving up on their argument before it got started.

"Oh... I'm not hungry right now. Sorry Sam."

"Nah forget about it. It's fine," Sam said. "Call me later if you want to get together for dinner. I'll let you get back to work."

"Thanks Sam."

"No problem. Think about what I said though. Talk to you later." She hung up the phone and Danny sat there for a moment listening to the dead phone line. He eventually hung up and tossed the phone to the bottom of the bed.

He didn't want to admit it, but Sam had a point. He needed some help with his work or it was never going to get done. Pushing himself up off his bed Danny sorted out his desk, making individual piles for each class. He decided that since it all was due around the same time, the largest projects should get done first. And surprise, surprise, the largest assignment was for Astronomy. Danny groaned. He knew he needed some extra help in that class or he was going to fail the midterm. It was a hard class for a first year student. Feeling defeated Danny threw his pink converse on and quickly picked up all his work for Astronomy. He slipped it into his book bag and left his dorm.

oOo

Now, if you ever tried to navigate your way through an office building you'll know how confusing it can get. Misprinted office numbers, side stairs that lead to nowhere, shared offices, and "sorry, you're looking for the other room 413 in the science wing, which is way back there." By the time Danny got to the right place, he was a little bundle of frustration.

It was a long beige hallway with white tiled flooring. It was very clean and new. The hall was narrow and brown doors lines the walls on either side. Next to each door were the office number, a professor's name and the subject they taught. Danny followed the numbers; odd numbers were on the right and even were to the left. He had come up from the far stair case so he had to count backwards from 430.

He counted backwards in his head, '430, 429, 428...'

The hallway was empty besides him so his shoes echoed as they scuffled along the floor. Danny had a habit of dragging his feet so it made more noise than it should have. '424, 423, 422...'

Danny doubted he'd get an extension of any kind on his assignment, especially from Mr. Masters. Of all his teachers, he had to be going crawling to _him_ asking for a favour. They hadn't gotten much more interaction then in class, where Danny got call on for answers he didn't have. It made Danny feel humiliated and hate his teacher all over again. Whatever light bubbly feeling he got from the man had fled long ago.

'417, 416, 415...'

He got to the room he was looking for and double checked the sign on the door. It said the following:

'Room 413 Mr. Vladimir Masters, Astrophysics/Business department.'

Danny paused looking at the name tag, "Vladimir?" He snorted back a laugh. "His name's Vladimir?" It was definitely a unique name to say the least.

The door to the office was closed like all the others. Danny couldn't tell if he was in or not. After a long breath Danny knocked on the door. He hoped that Mr. Masters wasn't there. Though of course, with Danny's luck, he heard his teacher's voice call from behind the door telling him to come in. Danny pushed the door open, poking his head around the side to look into the office.

It was small and well lit. A window looked out over the parking lot. The office had the same beige and white colour pattern as the hall way. There was a big brown desk and a couple chairs. A large filing cabinet and a bookshelf full of textbooks. In short, it was typical for a school office. However, it did not match up with Mr. Masters at all. It wasn't his style. It was too... low key. Behind the big brown desk sat Danny's teacher. His elbows were propped up on the desktop, a fancy pen dangled idly from his long fingers. He looked up from some paper work as Danny entered the room.

"Come in and sit down, Daniel." He said in his deep rough voice. Danny wasn't surprised that he was being referred to by his first name. When they met in the bookstore a month ago Danny told him to call him by his first name. Mr. Mastered had complied, and had been calling him Daniel ever since. It was odd hearing an adult address him so casually but he didn't let it bother him.

"What can I do for you today?" Mr. Masters asked leaning forward in his chair.

Danny stepped forward and took the chair on the opposite side of the desk. He pulled his book bag into his lap and smiled uncomfortably at his teacher.

"Uhmm... Well, I was kind of wondering- about the assignment given in class- would it be possible to get a little extra time to get it done?" Danny asked. He knew he'd get shot down automatically but he still tried.

"I made the deadline perfectly clear in class on Wednesday. Is there a problem?"

Danny bit his tongue. The man in front of him was hard to read. He looked so unimpressed, and at the same time so content. Danny guessed he was just denied his request but he came all this way...

"Yes. Sort of," Danny said. The older gentlemen raised an eyebrow at him. Danny shifted in his seat. "I have gotten a lot of other assignments lately and with class and trying to get everything finished on time, I don't feel like I can get it all done properly." If there was one thing Danny did well, it was bullshit his way out of a situation. It was something he learned off his sister Jazz, and he had years of annoying high school teachers to practise on.

"And you decided to get an extension for my assignment?" He sounded a bit insulted by the idea.

"It's the longest one I have. I can't get it all done in the time provided-" Danny tried.

"A good student would organize their time so they could accomplish all of their work and get it handed in on time. Why should I make an exception just for you Daniel? If I am not mistaken, I have offered multiple extra help sessions throughout the term so far, and you have not attended one of them." Mr. Master looked at him questioningly. Danny didn't know what to say. "Why should I let you hand in your assignment in at a later date when you aren't even trying in my class?"

"I'm trying! I really am. It's just a lot to take in over a short period of time." Danny argued. "I just need a few extra days to get the assignment done."

"What is a few extra days going to accomplish if you don't understand the material?"

"I can get it done. I'm only asking up to the midterm, no later." Danny felt hurt.

"I will repeat myself Daniel, the dead line was set in class. You don't come to extra help, your quizzes are barely average, and now you're asking me to over look the dude date for you." His voice was so level and final. There was no changing his mind. Danny wanted to call him a jackass or something to that affect, though he wasn't sure it would get him kicked out of the class. Danny bit his lip trying to hold back his anger. Deciding it would be best for him to leave; Danny got up and put his book bag over his shoulder. At this point he didn't see why he should be polite toward his teacher but he sucked it up and thanked him for sparing him some time to talk.

"That's fine then. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about this." Danny receives an amused smirk from his teacher. Danny frowned and moved towards the door to leave.

"Daniel, sit down." Mr. Masters said from behind him. Danny did as he was told though he wasn't happy about it. He sat quietly and let the man continue. "You may have your extension on the assignment."

"What?" Danny gave him a confused look.

"You may have the extension you asked for." He repeated. "On one condition..."

"Of course..." Danny rolled his eyes. Good things always came with a catch.

"I'll give you to the midterm to finish your work; no later than the end of the exam, if it's not handed in by then I will not except it."

Danny nodded quietly. "And your condition is?"

"Starting Monday you will attend each and every one of my extra help sessions. Even if you understand the material in class, you will join the study group. It's every Monday at four, upstairs in the library."

Danny huffed gently. It was a reasonable offer, even if it did mean he'd have to put up with two extra hours a week with this guy. Never the less, Danny agreed to join the study group starting Monday. His teacher smiled at him and nodded,

"I will see you Monday then Daniel." He said.

"Yeah, I guess you will." Danny got up out of the chair again. "Thank you for the help Mr. Masters."

"It is no problem Daniel." They locked eyes and Danny felt a familiar flip in his stomach. "Come back and see me if you have any more questions about the work."

Danny face began heating up. He nodded and turned away before the older man could see his red cheeks. He left quickly which Danny was sure was a dead giveaway but he didn't care. Making sure the door was closed behind him, Danny made his way down the hall. He sighed with relief. A smile crossed his face. Danny had gotten extra time for the assignment. It was only a few days but it was better than nothing.

Half way down the hall Danny came to an abrupt stop. His eyebrows knit themselves together in a frown. What had happened back in his teacher's office was finally clicking in his brain. He traded a few extra days for two hours every week for the rest of the semester? He somehow got talked into doing more work. Danny felt tricked now that he thought about it. He willingly accepted to join a study group lead by a teacher he hated. Danny shook his head.

"The man is a fucking Jedi." He growled before heading down the side stairs to the main floor of the building.

oOo

It was barely past noon now and the lower level of the building was crowded with people going to and from classes. A few were using the building as a short cut to the bus stop. Danny waded through the crowds of people. Most ignored him; a few stepped to the side and let him pass. On the odd occasion he saw a familiar face in the group, someone from class or from high school. A couple of students he went to high school with ended up going to the same university as him. It wasn't surprising but it was good to see them around, even if he never really knew their names.

As he made his way back to his dorm he was trying to organize his time in the back of his head. He needed to get as much of his work done right away. They were all due within a short time. It was hard to handle. And of course he had to cut two hours off his Mondays to add in a study group.

Danny let it go, he couldn't change it now. He made his way out of the building and into the fresh air. The air was still summery and warm but the wind was making it harder to wear t-shirts outside. After all, it was the middle of October. In a week Danny knew the last little bit of summer would be long gone. It was a depressing though.

Danny stopped off at the coffee shop inside the Student Union building before going to his dorm. He bought a large coffee and a muffin. It was a long roundabout walk around campus but the break from work was nice and it was putting him in a less bitter mood. By the time he got back to his room Danny was ready to get back to his assignments. He was determined to get a small fraction of it done over the weekend. Danny was sure a few all nighters wouldn't do too much harm, or at least he hoped it wouldn't.

oOo

Come Sunday morning Danny was too tired to keep his eyes open. He hadn't slept Friday night. He had worked straight through the evening and all of Saturday, only stopping when Sam pulled him off to the cafeteria by the back of his shirt collar. The previous night, Saturday, Danny had managed to stay up writing an essay until around three in the morning. The idea was he'd lie down for a second but he fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. He woke up seven hours later at ten o'clock.

Danny rolled over on his bed. He had fallen asleep on top of the covers and fully dressed. Now that he was awake he realised how uncomfortable he really was. On the desk next to him, his phone beeped. It was the alarm he had turned on just in case something like this happened. Danny flung out his hand and snatched it up. The beeping was getting on his nerves. He hit a button with his thumb and dropped his arm back down next to him, phone in hand. He wanted to give in and sleep some more, but he knew that would be a bad idea. Danny pushed himself up, ruffled his hair which matted itself to the side of his head.

With a yawn he grabbed a towel and went to grab a shower. For some reason any time between ten and eleven a.m. was a good time to shower for Danny. It somehow fit into the dorms' schedule. No one ever seemed to be around during that time to hog the bathroom. It was an odd coincidence but Danny took full advantage of it.

He took a long shower to make sure he was clean. Danny found that two days sitting around in the same clothes left a greasy feeling all over. The water felt good though. It was hot and yet refreshing. Danny stood under the stream of water and breathed in the steam. He let himself relax into the heat. Soap ran in rivers down his back. Closing his eyes Danny rinsed off his face and hair in the water.

He was starting to feel more awake not. Danny washed the rest of the soap from his body. He didn't want to start off the day with more homework but he couldn't stay in the bathroom either. Turning off the shower he shook some of the loose water droplets from his hair. He pushed the curtain back and got out. Cold damp air hit his warm skin causing goose bumps to rise. Danny dried off with his towel quickly. He threw his dirty clothes back on again, just to get him back to his room. As he left the bathroom and walked back to his dorm, he dried his hair as best as he could.

When he got to his dorm Danny closed the door and tossed the wet towel into his clothes hamper. He looked at the pile of work still on his desk. Danny thought if he had to write one more word his hand was going to snap off. So, he decided he needed to take a small break before getting back to it.

Danny quickly stripped his dirty clothes off and changed into something clean. It was nothing special, skinny jeans and a dark blue hoodie. Shoes on and wallet in his pocket, Danny grabbed his key and left his room.

Unfortunately Danny hadn't looked outside before leaving. It was grey and cloudy out. It was probably going to rain at some point today. Danny, keeping a hopefully perspective, walked down the side walk towards the bus stop. He hoped it wouldn't start to downpour until he got back.

The bus came by soon after and he rode it into the downtown area. It was a short ride, taking only ten to fifteen minutes depending on the traffic. Today the bus was pretty empty, which was odd for a weekend. Danny got off at his stop and walked along the busy street. It was nice to be out of his small dorm room. Danny wasn't all too sociable but he liked being around people, getting lost in a crowd made him feel less of a loser.

Danny walked quietly down to a corner store. It was a regular smoke shop. You could get cigarettes, lottery tickets, a newspaper, or cheap snacks. Danny grabbed a cling wrapped sandwich and a coffee for a few bucks.

The guy at the counter smiled at him and it made Danny blush a little bit. He was tall and had brown messy hair with subtle sideburns. A pair of grey rimmed glasses sat on his nose in front of soft green eyes. Danny had to admit, he was pretty damn cute. Feeling pretty good about himself, Danny returned the smile and gave the guy a sweet flirty 'thank you' on his way out the door.

Danny walked down the street some more, a happy bounce in his step. Not ready to head back to school just yet, he took a turn into a used book store on the corner. The store had a nice atmosphere. Danny put his sandwich in the front pouch of his hoodie as he walked around a few shelves of books. Looking at various book titles, he sipped at his coffee. Since he wasn't looking for anything in particular Danny walked around aimlessly.

Danny stopped in front of some old books and his nose twitched. It was dusty and it caused him to sneeze into his elbow.

"Bless you Daniel." A deep voice said from behind him. It made Danny jump out of shock because behind him stood his Astronomy teacher with an arm full of books. Danny didn't really know what to say. So he said the first thing that came to mind, luckily it was something polite.

"Thank you?" He received a soft smile from the man.

Danny stood up straight, feeling awkward around him. He didn't really know why but being alone with his teacher made his stomach twist into knots.

Danny noticed that he was wearing another suit. It was casual but it was odd. Danny wondered who this guy was trying to impress by dress so nicely all the time.

"How are you today Daniel?" He asked offhandedly. It must have been a surprise for him to run into Danny here as well.

It took a second for his brain to catch up to speed but Danny blinked and answered back,

"Fine, I'm doing fine Mr. Masters." Danny sounded nervous even to his own ears, and he felt ridiculous. Something must have been amusing to his teacher because the smile he had going got bigger.

"No need to be so formal. We are no longer at school. Please, call me Vlad." He told him.

"Seriously?" Danny asked giving him an odd look. He hadn't expected that but then again he hadn't expected seeing his teacher today.

"Of course I am. You have given me permission to call you by your first name. It is only polite that I do the same."

"Ah... ok?" Danny really wasn't catching on, but he rather not argue with the man. "What are you doing here?"

"I am shopping around for some new books." Vlad informed him. "It is something I do quite often."

Danny looked back at the small stack of books he had. "You gonna read all of those?"

"I am." He nodded.

"That must take a lot of time." Danny read sometimes, but he wasn't a bookworm like some people he knew.

"Reading is a past time of mine. People take literature for granted these days. It isn't given as much respect as it deserves."

Danny nodded. He guessed the man had a point.

"Do you like to read Daniel?" Vlad asked.

"Occasionally, when I have something good to read," Danny answered.

"What do you consider good reading?"

Danny paused and thought for a moment. He tried to remember something he read in high school that would make him sound smart. "I enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies..."

"That is an excellent book." Vlad mused. "I have read it a number of times."

"Yeah, it was good. Uh... what are you buying today?" Danny was astonished that he wasn't having as hard of a time talking to his teacher as he thought he would. It was actually really easy. Vlad told him the books he was picking up, how old they were and even what they were about. A few of them didn't sound too bad. Danny nodded and listened with genuine interest. He sipped his coffee and let himself relax a little. The butterflies in his stomach didn't go away but he ignored it.

Danny followed him to the cashier while Vlad bought his books. They were having a good conversation. They walked out of the bookstore talking about literature, actually more like Vlad discretely teaching him about literature. Danny doubted he'd include comic books anywhere near the category.

They had made their way along the street chatting like they were close acquaintances. Up until Vlad asked how his homework was coming along. Danny was startled by the question. He had forgotten about it completely. He help back a curse, biting his tongue.

"I forgot. I was having a nice time. I mean..." Danny stuttered trying hard not to blush his face off and failing poorly. "I should get back to my dorm and finish what I can before classes tomorrow."

Vlad smiled and waved it off. "It is alright."

"I should get going and grab the next bus. It was nice talking to you, really." Danny mentally kicked himself. _'Nice? It was nice? Couldn't think of a better word Fenton?'_

"Likewise," Vlad said, unfazed by how flustered Danny was getting. "Remember that we have our study group tomorrow afternoon."

"Right, I won't forget. I'll be there" Danny turned to go. "Bye Vlad, thanks for everything."

"Goodbye Daniel, see you tomorrow."

Danny ran off with a red face and a large embarrassed smile. He couldn't figure out how any of what happened actually happened. However, it did and Danny was feeling alright about it. He got to the bus stop just as the bus he needed pulled up. Danny got on and stood near the back door. As odd as it was being around his teacher like that, it felt good. He had enjoyed himself.

The bus took him back to school and Danny got off. His heart was still fluttering away in his chest even though he had calmed down a while ago. With a deep sigh he walked back to the dorm buildings and up the stairs to his single room. He unlocked the door and went inside.

He sat down on his bed and pulled the forgotten sandwich out from his pocket. He unwrapped it and popped half in his mouth. Danny put the other half on his desk. As he munched away on the bread and lunch meat, Danny took a deep breath in through his nose. Despite having to go back to working on assignments until bedtime, it had been a pretty good day.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello everyone. OMG short chapter! Alright so today, you all get some filler. Chapter five will have something going on so now you guys get something to look forward to. Hopefully I'll get around to starting it a lot sooner than this chapter. This was actually finished days ago but it took me forever to get around editing it. I'm lazy, I apologize. But today I had nothing better to do. It's a billion degrees outside and there's no way I'm going out anywhere.

Hope you enjoy chapter four and please review. Thank you for all the loves! You guys are great!

oOo

Chapter Four: Red Alert

Danny slumped forward, head low to his chest. A loud yawn erupted from him. He was tired and wanted to go back to sleep. With a blanket wrapped around him tightly, Danny could only yawn again. After the second time he received a smack to the shoulder. Danny lifted his head to look at the person next to him and was greeted by a wide awake looking Sam. She frowned at him and said,

"Will you stop that? It's not that late."

"Sorry..." Danny apologized and hugged himself in his fuzzy blue blanket. It was a good thing it was the weekend. It meant he could sleep through the next day completely.

But for now he was tired and cold, though there was no wonder as to why. It was two thirty a.m. and they were sitting on the curb outside. It was also the beginning of November. This of course was all due to a fire drill, or a moron. Danny knew that some people in the residence buildings liked to get drunk and pull the fire alarm for fun. It didn't sound very fun at all really. Danny wasn't a drinker or a night person. Actually if Danny had to stay up past two in the morning he was just going to say, 'Fuck it! I'm going to bed.'

He figured Sam was a night owl. You could call her at any time in the middle of the night and she'd be awake. Maybe she had been sleeping when the alarm went off and maybe not. He didn't know. She didn't look tired at all. And of course, Danny had been sleeping like a rock in his bed, probably snoring.

"I swear if someone pulled that stupid alarm... I'll kill them." Sam seethed. It was funny how she still managed to look threatening when bundled in a thick black sweater, grey pyjama pants and fuzzy purple slippers. Danny just nodded. His brain was shut down for the night, so he had next to nothing to say. And even if he tried, it wouldn't make any sense. Pulling his blanket up around his face, he yawned again.

Danny stared down at his sneakers. People were bustling around him and Sam, yelling and complaining. The sound blurred; footsteps, voices even the obnoxiously shrill fire alarm became one big mesh of static. Danny could no longer identify one sound from another. He couldn't hear Sam anymore and she was sitting next to him on the curb. She had brought up her classic literature class right before Danny completely zoned out.

Danny shook his head and cuddled into his blanket. A part of him wanted to blame his slow reactions on the fact he was tired. It was a very, very large part of him too. The truth was, the longer he was up the more his mind wandered. Now, unfortunately, he had other things on him mind. Certain things he didn't want to be thinking about and knew he'd never tell anyone. It was a repetitive, whiny voice in the back of his head that wouldn't go away. It wasn't new. This nagging voice had been yelling at him for weeks now. This brought out a very frustrating situation with it. Danny wouldn't admit to it out loud but he couldn't help but want to. Even now the words danced on the tip of his tongue, waiting to slide out at any moment.

He wished he could make the turning of his stomach stop. It was starting to get annoying. It was almost like he felt guilty over having thoughts about...Danny shuffled his feet on the pavement. Tiny rocks rolled around under his shoes.

You know in the movies how they show love as being this wonderful feeling that leaves you radiating happiness?

Bullshit! That's a schoolyard crush.

A crush leaves you feeling weightless all the time. Danny had many of those in the past and could identify that feeling a mile away. The twisting knot in his stomach was something else. He felt like he was frozen to the ground, heavy and immovable. Breathing was difficult, no air wanted to come into his lungs. There wasn't even enough in him to blink. He felt numb and hollow.

This was no crush. The only time this feeling of death would lift was when _he_ was around. Then Danny's heart would skip and the knot in his gut would loosen to nervous butterflies. His knees would buckle, ready to give out. Not to mention it was one of those times that would make his mouth move faster than his brain. He had to be careful of what he said or Danny would blurt out ever feeling he had for his teacher!

Danny swallowed trying to get rid of the lump in his throat but it only seemed to make it worse. It was kind of like the back of his tongue was swollen.

He knew what these feelings were. However, Danny wasn't sure where it all came from or when it happened. It just somehow happened when he wasn't paying attention. If Danny had to guess he'd guess it all started that day in the bookstore, two months ago. The way their eyes met. How their finger tips had brushed when Danny took the textbook from him. How glorious his smile was, or how it felt to be looked at with his stormy blue eyes.

The memory made Danny feel queasy. He did his best to ignore the feeling to vomit. He didn't need to try and explain that to any of the RA monitors, or Sam.

The whole situation was frustrating and confusing. It went without saying that Danny was not happy about this. He told himself no, that it was a bad idea to do but deny how he felt. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!

Danny had to keep telling himself all the reasons why it was bad to really believe it. For starters, it was his teacher. That was a mistake right off the bat. Danny might not be a minor but he could still cost Vlad his job. That wouldn't be good. Schools had policies against this kind of thing too right?

Second of all, Vlad was more than twice his age. An eighteen-year-old and a man in his mid forties, a lot of people would find that strange at best and disgusting at worst. Not to mention having to explain that to his parents. That was a whole other factor on his list. What would his parents say about it? Danny didn't want to know right now.

Thirdly, how would he even tell Vlad? He'd get rejected before anything was really said. This lead to Danny's next point on his list, Vlad could not think of him in the same way. Danny could be working himself up over nothing. This was a big thing to over look. It doesn't matter how Danny felt if Vlad didn't like him in return. There's no reason why he should like him at all. Danny was just a dorky, loser kid. Vlad was a busy, good looking, well dressed, intelligent – Shut up!

Danny was getting stressed and it was making his eye twitch. He knew he was not going to get much sleep tonight, which wouldn't help at all. It was only going to make him feel worse.

What eventually snapped Danny out of his confused daydream was being bumped from behind. He blinked bringing himself back to reality.

"Don't you think Danny?"

"What?" Danny asked, blinking.

"You weren't listening at all were you?" Sam looked confused.

"Sorry... I was just thinking about him." Danny sighed and rubbed his eye.

"Who?"

Danny's eyes shot up and the colour drained from his face. The words had slipped out before he could stop them. He gulped down air trying not to freak out. However, he was coming off as embarrassed and a bit hysterical.

"Who are we talking about? I forget..." Danny laughed awkwardly, the colour returning to his cheeks in a shade or two darker than normal. He pulled the blanket up around his ears to hide his blushing. Sam watched him curiously.

"Danny, are you ok?" Sam asked. Danny looked around for a distraction and found one satisfactory.

"Oh would you look at that, we can go back in." Danny said faking excitement.

He pushed himself up and wrapped his blanket more securely around his shoulder. Sam looked like she was going to say more, but Danny didn't want to hear it. At least not right now. He left, hugging himself tightly.

Danny pushed himself through the crowed to get inside. He dragged his feet down the hall. His stomach felt queasy and the florescent lights made his dry eyes burn. Danny was ready to crawl under his covers and hide in the dark till class Monday morning. The down side was Monday was also his study group meeting. Maybe Vlad wouldn't mind him missing just one of them.

When he got to the stairwell Danny hightailed it up two flights of stairs.

He slipped into his room when he got there and locked the door behind him. Without turning the light on Danny crawled into bed. Shoving the blankets up over his head, Danny refused to move until he had to go to class.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: I got nothing... Just enjoy.

Ok, on to the chapter. Read and Review.

Chapter Five: Aurora Borealis

As it turned out, staying curled up in bed for roughly thirty hours wasn't hard to do for Danny. Like any teenage boy he had a lot of experience being a bedroom hermit for days on end. There were long weekends where Danny never left his room unless it was to grab a shower or find something to eat. Then he would go right back to his room and close the door. Curtains would be shut and the room would be dark, the only light coming from Danny's computer screen and desk lamp.

His mother had teased him about it before, calling him their ghost son. With his parents being in the "supernatural" business they found it pretty funny. Danny on the other hand was less than amused. He thought they were crazy as it was. If their joke did anything, it made him hide out in his room alone more often. Though there were weekends where he and Tucker would hang out and see how many video games they could clear in forty-eight hours.

But this time around, Danny didn't have much to do. Of course he didn't want to be doing anything in particular. So he stayed in bed and wasn't bothered until the weekend was over.

On Monday morning the quiet sound of Danny's alarm buzzed through his door room. Normally it wasn't as annoying as it was today. Danny dragged himself out of bed and turned the alarm off as quickly as he could.

It was going to be a long day. He grabbed a five second shower down the hall, before throwing on a lose sweater and jeans. With his hair wet and ruffled, Danny threw on sneakers and headed out for his first class of the day.

Being in a bad mood was one thing but by the time Danny walked into the library at the end of the day, he was downright suicidal. Dragging his feet, Danny wandered towards the back of the library. Like any time during the day there were students working away as table and computers. It was a crowded atmosphere and pretty much dismissed the point of working in the library.

The astronomy study group worked upstairs in a back corner. It was quiet enough there for everyone to focus. The unfortunate thing was that Danny wasn't focused on studying at all. He was paying closer attention to Vlad, and not in a productive way. It was more of a 'pathetic-love-struck-teenager-day-dream' kind of way. This made class much trickier. Danny was trying to ignore the twist of his gut when he walked up the stairs to the second floor, though it was proving difficult. Now that he had come to terms with his annoying feelings Danny was dreading being in the same room as Vlad, which made him wonder why he was going to their study group today at all. He could just skip it. Well, in theory he could do that. Knowing his luck he'd get asked why he never showed up. This made Danny pause.

One hand was on the fire exit door, perfectly OK with going back to his dorm room. If Vlad stopped him after class to ask why he had missed their meeting today, would that mean he actually noticed and cared? Or would he just be doing his job? Would he wonder where Danny was on a personal level, or something else? The answer seemed obvious. Danny was his student and nothing more. Vlad didn't think, no, would never think of his as anything other than a student. He was an immature kid and Vlad was successful, handsome - and for all Danny knew – probably married.

Danny leant his forehead against the cool metal door. He closed his eyes and sighed to himself. If he wasn't bummed out before, he sure was now. There was no helpful way of putting it all.

Deciding not to be some depressed loser, Danny stood up straight and chose to have some pride. He wasn't a spineless sook. Even though he felt like one. So with his head held high he forced himself to walk through the book aisles. Danny had a feeling he was a bit early because he couldn't hear anyone talking. There were a few people on the floor with him but they weren't part of his class. They minded their own business and Danny left them alone.

Danny peeked around the last bookshelf on the row. The large table was empty of teenagers. Proving he was early. But moving around the table sorting out paper was Vlad Masters. It made Danny freeze mid step. Whatever confidence Danny had, it was now shattered into insecurity and heartache. Danny stepped back and hid himself around the corner of the metal book shelf, keeping an eye on his teacher. A small blush creeped onto his face involuntarily.

Vlad hadn't seen Danny yet so was unaware of him hiding like a scared little child behind the U7000-V1300 shelf. He was busy sorting out sheets of paper onto the table for the study group. Vlad was dressed in his usual attire: dark dress pants and black shoes, a white button up, vest and tie. The sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up, but it didn't make him look any more relaxed. His light hair was pulled back by a black band. Danny thought he looked wonderful as always. Then again, Danny was starting to think this man was incapable of looking like a normal human being. He wasn't complaining though because he liked Vlad just the way he was. Right now, that seemed to be a bad thing.

Danny slid back along the shelf and sat down on the floor, back resting up against the books. It was tough having self-esteem sometimes. He knew he should have just left. Class was going to be a pain in the ass now. With a sigh Danny sat there quietly. Behind him the rest of the study group filed in soon enough.

"The _aurora australis,_ or the southern lights, has almost identical features to the _aurora borealis..._" He could hear Vlad's deep voice clearly. It was kind of like going to their meeting. "They can be seen in Antarctica, South America and Australia."

Danny moped to himself on the floor. He pulled his knees into his chest and sulked. All he felt like doing was listening in on Vlad lecture. It was nice to hear his voice even if he couldn't stand looking at him right now. Sure he felt like a coward and a little bit like a stalker, but he didn't feel like going back to his room alone.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there without moving. His feet were tingling oddly and his legs had fallen asleep at some point. It wasn't very comfortable on the floor but Danny wasn't moving any time soon. As far as he knew that was. It took him a while before he realised that Vlad was quiet. Maybe the study group was over now. That meant he could go back to his dorm without guilt.

"Daniel?"

Danny jumped seeing Vlad in front of him looking baffled. He blinked and got to his feet slowly.

"Mr. Masters... What are you still doing here?" Danny asked, trying not to sound anxious.

"I was just about to leave. You weren't at our study group. Have you been sitting here this whole time?"

Vlad took a small step forward. It made Danny jump back in a mild panic. This turned out to be a bad move because the next thing Danny knew he was on his back, holding his head. White spots dotted his vision and there was a slight ringing in his ears. A warm hand wrapped around his own.

"Daniel? Daniel, are you alright?"

Danny looked up at the concerned face of his teacher. He blinked the spots away and tried to sit up.

"Yeah I think so..." He replied in a daze. Sitting was proving harder than he thought it would. Vlad had a strong hold on his shoulder to keep him up straight.

"Be careful Daniel. You tripped and hit your head on the shelf."

"I'm ok..." Danny pushed himself up. When he got to his feet he swayed unstably. Again Vlad had to help him stand. Danny leaned into his touch slightly. It was nice, and he needed the help. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Vlad trying to get his attention. He looked up at him with hazy eyes.

"What?" Danny asked in confusion. "Did you say something?"

"Yes I did." He said "I suggested going to the medical clinic. You're looking pale."

"Oh... Yeah ok," Danny said leaning on Vlad a little to walk. He was helped out of the library and through the campus yard over to the Student Union building. It was a rather embarrassing walk over to the medical clinic but Danny wasn't paying any attention to the weird looks he was getting from passing students. He was inside Vlad's personal space, and it was heavenly. Vlad was warm and strong. He was perfect. It was just too bad that it was going to be over soon.

A little while later Danny found himself sitting in a nice cushy chair with an ice pack on his head. The world had stopped spinning, thankfully, but he still felt dizzy. Probably because Vlad was still sitting next to him, it was making him a bit uncomfortable and completely at ease at the same time. He dared a glance over at the man next to him and was rewarded with a handsome smile. It made Danny melt. He smiled back with a lopsided smirk, which was much dorkier than attractive. The smile quickly vanished when this thought crossed his mind. Danny felt like such a loser compared to Vlad.

"Are you feeling better Daniel?" It was touching how concerned Vlad sounded but damn it if Danny was going to think too much into that. He might later but not in context to this situation.

"Yes," Danny nodded "and thank you, for this."

"It was the least I could do." Vlad offered casually.

"You didn't have to stay and sit with me. It was nice enough of you just to walk me here."

"I simple wanted to make sure you were looked after."

"Well thanks." Danny couldn't help how bright red his cheeks were getting. "That's really nice of you." His voice dropped significantly for the last part. He was really hoping Vlad didn't hear him. And if he had, Vlad didn't say anything about it. He just smiled.

The sweet moment was interrupted by Danny's stomach rumbling loudly. His smile fell and he groaned.

"Sorry about that. I haven't eaten since lunch."

"It's pushing six o'clock."

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to have to run over to the cafeteria while it's still open. This is the busiest hour too for some reason. It's going to close in an hour and a half. You'd think people would have some common sense to eat earlier." Danny paused feeling a little weird rambling like this. "Sorry... My brain is still a little rattled..."

"Not at all," Vlad said. "Your complaint is valid."

"Yeah but I'm actually tired of cafeteria food. It's never any good. I might grab Sam and go downtown for food... She's vegan though... It's not so much food as in vegetable mulch."

"Lovely, and is this Sam your girlfriend?"

Danny looked up at him curiously. It was a fair question, although it was definitely the last thing he figured Vlad would be interest in knowing. It still made Danny snicker a little to himself.

"Oh god no," He said. "We're just friends. We've been friends since we were kids. Besides, I'm not seeing anyone."

Vlad nodded as Danny went on rambling.

Then Vlad said something that completely dumbfounded Danny. It literally caused him to go speechless, which was a hard task to do because he could make a comment about anything really. Yet Danny couldn't even stammer. He looked at Vlad with big round eyes which said everything for him.

"Huh?"

"I asked if you would allow me to treat you to dinner."

Nope. It still made Danny's brain freeze.

Yes it was weir and yes it was probably giving Danny the wrong idea but he sure as hell wasn't going to say no. It's not like he was just asked out on a date or something. He smiled though and said in a cheery voice,

"... Sure!"

Danny set the ice pack down. If he didn't know better he'd think he was dreaming. Though if it was a dream, Danny doubted he'd have hit his head so hard. And if it was a dream the two of them would have had hot sex right on the floor of the library. And with that happy though in his head, a very red Danny stood up to leave.

The two walked out of the clinic together and towards the elevator. Danny was comfortably quiet and was still grinning from ear to ear by the time they left the building. So with his resolution on to get too attached to Vlad completely thrown out the window, he let himself be lead about to the school's parking lot. No one was really around at this time. It made Danny feel a bit better for some reason. He knew no one was going to be staring at him for hanging around a teacher. But then again, Danny was so happy that he probably wouldn't care if anyone did look at him strangely.

"That's your car?" Danny asked with a short, sceptical laugh. It was a nice car too. Though Danny didn't really know a lot about car's it was pretty obvious that it cost a lot of money. The car was classy and a sleek black. It had slightly tinted windows and the interior looked like leather.

"Yes it is." Vlad said casually as he unlocked the door.

"I'm impressed. This honestly looks like it cost more than my house."

"It most likely does."

Danny nodded and got in, snuggling back into the fresh leather seat. Normally he was the first to judge people solely on the basis of having nice things but it was too nice to complain about. However, he had to ask.

"How can you afford this as a teacher?"

It made Vlad laugh a little. Danny knew that he wasn't being laughed at though – for once.

"My boy, if there is one thing that I am good at, it is making money. And I make a lot."

"You are insanely lucky," was Danny's only comment to that. He'd have to put Vlad's good fortune on his list of things to be jealous over.

"I'll let you in on a secret Daniel," Vlad leaned over a bit. "It doesn't take hard work or luck to make a fortune. All you need is to know the right people and the ability to lie."

"And yet, I'm still impressed." Danny said with an unintentionally flirty smile.

"That is good to know."

As pleased with his good luck as Danny was, he wasn't fully content. Yes he was so happy he thought he could float away, and yes he didn't care what anyone else thought about him. But there were a few things burning at the back of his mind, and it was no longer his headache.

Danny looked out the window, ignoring the little voice in his head. He wanted to enjoy himself for as long as he could. As far as he was concerned, they weren't at school anymore so he didn't have to think of Vlad as just his teacher. Danny could think of him in any way he wanted, for now.

During the car ride Danny never asked once where they were going. He didn't really care. Was it irresponsible? Yes, probably, but Danny was happy. Every so often he'd glace at Vlad out of the corner of his eye. It made him blush lightly and smile. Vlad looked so content. It really made Danny wonder...

"Don't you have better things to do tonight than taking me out?" Danny asked out of nowhere. He probably should have thought that through a little before blurting it out.

Vlad looked over at him, it almost made Danny want to jump from the moving vehicle.

"No, not at all," He told Danny in a pleasant tone. "While I may have other things to do this evening, I would rather be here."

Danny was very relieved to hear that. It did bright up his previous questions he had about Vlad.

"So you have no work to do, or family to go home to?"

"I constantly have some kind of work to do." Danny nodded at his answer, waiting for him to continue.

"And as for family," Vlad gave a small laugh. "I rarely talk to them."

"Why?" Danny was a little shocked now. "You don't talk to your wife or kids?"

Now Vlad was really laughing. "I have no children."

"Really? I figured someone like you would be at least married."

"Not anymore, no."

"Not anymore...?" Danny stared at him, feeling a little less despressed.

"We divorced years ago." Vlad said sounding entirely alright with the fact he was divorced.

"Oh, Ok." Danny smiled. He could deal with Vlad being divorced. Danny now felt pretty good being around him. Vlad was divorced. He had a flaw. That was great. Danny did find him too perfect to be true.

He was cheering on the inside.

The two didn't have to drive much farther. Vlad parked before Danny knew where they were. This made him quite shocked when he got out of the car. It was now that Danny started regretting this whole ordeal. He should have just gone back to his room when he had the chance.

"I hope you're hungry Daniel." Vlad said, walking him to the door.

"Starved..." The anxious tone was horribly masked. Danny followed anyways, trying to straighten his shirt. It was far too nice of Vlad to be taking him out at all, but here? No, no, no... This was insane. It was the fanciest restaurant Danny had ever seen, though he never saw many in Amity Park. So it went without saying he never ate some were this posh. He was more of a burger and fries kind of guy, not a black tie man like Vlad.

Feeling underdressed, Danny followed after Vlad closely. He stayed as quiet as possible trying not to draw attention to himself. But of course just being there made him stand out. Everyone in the restaurant looked so fancy. It was warm and softly lit, and really expensive. It'd almost be romantic if this was a date.

They got seated shortly. Danny wasn't feeling any less like a fish out of water. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Vlad was sitting right across from him. Those stormy eyes watched him curiously. It was making Danny's heart flutter.

"Are you alright Daniel?" Vlad asked resting his chin on his knuckles.

"Of course," Danny rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm just hungry."

"May I ask you a question?"

Danny nodded. He could very easily guess what the question was going to be.

"In the library earlier, what were you doing sitting on the floor?"

"I was... uhmm..." Danny tried. It was just too bad that he was such a bad liar. "I wasn't feeling too good."

"Please Daniel; you can do better than that." Obviously Vlad was too smart for him. Danny sighed softly.

"You've wanted to ask me about this since we were at school, didn't you?"

"Of course I did. I chose to pick the right moment though."

"And the right moment was in the middle of a fancy restaurant?" Danny asked a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Perhaps, I hoped you would feel more obliged to tell the truth."

"That's kind of, oh what's that word... manipulative."

"Yes, thank you." Vlad said with a smile. Danny followed suit, lips turning up. "Now answer the question."

"Uhmm..." Danny frowned. He didn't know what to say. Anything would come out wrong. Vlad waited patiently for a reply. It was causing an uncomfortable silence. Danny looked down to avoid eye contact.

"It's alright Daniel." Vlad finally said. Danny looked up at him, eyebrows knitting together.

"Huh?"

"I understand."

"I doubt that." He argued. Danny was obviously fighting a losing battle, but he was stubborn. He knew what Vlad meant and Danny knew he was right.

"Believe me. I know."

"...Are we talking about the same thing?" Danny asked.

"Yes," was the answer.

"You're ok with that?"

"I was counting on it." Vlad smirked in enjoyment over Danny's surprise.

"You're an evil genius." Danny finally said after a minute.

"Hardly, I am a genius though."

"Smooth." He said. "You have a high perception of yourself." Danny snickered. Vlad was too charming.

"I wouldn't say that."

"Oh really, and why's that? Are you too full of it to admit?"

"Well, let me ask you something. What do you think of me? Do you think I'm 'full of myself'?" Vlad asked. Danny opened his mouth to make some snarky comment but couldn't think of anything to say. Danny leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.

"I think," He started "that you are very, very full of it."

Of course that's what he said but he said it in such a way that it sounded like he said, 'You're smug but you are so hot.' Danny would never say that in front of Vlad but he was sure thinking it. Apparently however, Vlad was some kind of mind reader because he raised an eyebrow in amusement. Though Danny saw this coming, and didn't mind so much. He took it as a win that Vlad hadn't rejected his flirting yet. If he was going to be a tad bit of a flirt, he was going for it.

"You are an interesting boy Daniel." Vlad admitted.

Danny tilted his head to the side. He thanked Vlad for the partial complement, and returned it. However his comment was meant as a tease.

"And you're a very interesting man Vlad." Danny said with a dolling glance.

"In the best way possible I hope."

"Yeah, in the best way,"


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: I think I update so rarely just to make everyone whine. I find it a little fun being evil, making you wait. So the ending of the last chapter was probably a little rushed and confusing. At least I thought so. Hopefully this chapter will make it a bit easier to believe and explain a few things. I think it does, but I'm the one writing it. Thank you for all the reviews and lovely comments. Please leave another review after reading and tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading. Lots of Love!

Chapter Six: A Complicated Involvement

The week was winding down slowly. Class was over for the day and there was literally nothing to do. Danny wasn't too happy about that. He was downright upset because at that moment he was begging for homework. He'd take anything that'd keep him from thinking. It was becoming a frequent occurrence for him, over thinking. And of course, as always, it was about his maybe-maybe not with Vlad.

Danny hadn't spoken to Vlad directly since their dinner, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it or what to think. It was confusing for sure and just a bit embarrassing. He'd gone to dinner with a teacher which was a first for him. He'd never done that before and definitely didn't think he would. At the time Danny wasn't thinking about that. He was just going with it, and couldn't have been happier. Danny enjoyed his time with Vlad immensely and hoped he felt the same way.

Now he was just feeling nauseated.

Danny was worrying a lot more than he'd like to be. It irked him and made him second guess everything.

His uneasiness increased during class the other day. Vlad acted, for the most part, like nothing had happened between them. This wouldn't have surprised Danny at all if Vlad hadn't paused in the middle of class just to smile at him. Danny was speechless. When no one else seemed to notice what was going on he returned the smile, right before Vlad turned away to finish putting up notes on the white board. It had been completely unexpected and it got Danny's hopes up far too high. When he had gotten no further attention all week Danny sank into a small depression, feeling just a bit rejected.

Of course he knew better than to just assume things about relationships but he couldn't help himself, but it felt way too good not to. It was a bad habit that he let his feelings get the better of him. Actually, it was quite rare for Danny to ever think with his head. He was stubborn and usually jumped into things without thinking things through. It was one of the reasons he got beat up in middle school. Now being older, Danny didn't see this bad habit going away. He could acknowledge it being a bad quality in himself but he wasn't doing anything about it. So Danny sulked to himself for a few days, by the time lunch rolled around on this particular Thursday, Danny was ready to take to the bed and never leave.

He and Sam sat on the bleachers outside eating lunch. It had been a long week for the both of them and decided to screw cafeteria food for something with a little more flavour. Cafeteria food tended to be under or over cooked and gross. Danny being in his current funk wanted some good old junk food. Yet, he was more interested in the dark clouds rolling over the football field than the fast food burger sitting in his lap.

Sam munched on a veggie wrap, pleased with her lunch. The cold didn't bother her or Danny. They were bundled up in multiple sweaters today. Neither of them was getting out their winter coats just yet. Winter coats and there's no snow? No teenager does that.

"If it starts to snow I'm going to be really pissed..." Danny said off headedly, popping a french fry into his mouth. It had gone cold from sitting out but he really didn't care. Sam looked over at him. Danny sighed and leaned back against the seat, ignoring the weird look he was getting.

"What'd snow ever do to you?" She asked as a joke.

"It's too Christmassy..." Danny might not hate the holiday as much as he use to, but it still made him little down in the dumps. Christmas use to involve his parents bickering like children, leaving him and his sister to celebrate alone. Danny never understood the argument but it had something to do with Santa Clause being real or not. Obviously Danny didn't give a shit about it, but his dad sure did.

"That's not what's bothering you, is it?" Sam asked him.

"No it's not," was his short answer.

"Then what is? You've been acting really miserable."

Danny paused for a minute. He didn't want to say anything that would give his little secret away. So he went with something he could say was the truth and a lie all in one.

"I'm having teacher issues."

"That 'Masters' guy again?" Sam asked. "Haven't heard you bitch about him in a while. I almost started to miss it."

"He hasn't been so bad lately; nothing to complain about until now."

"What'd he do now?"

"He uhmm... hasn't been available for extra help." Again, it was a lie and the truth all in one.

"Sucks," Sam said. Danny nodded and ate another soggy french fry. "Why don't you go over to his office right now? He should be there if not teaching a class. You could get some help, or tell him off. Either one's ok with me."

"I know it'd be ok with you. If I told him off I'd get into some shit with him. He might fail me on purpose." He grumbled bitterly.

"True... He seems like the kind of guy to do that. Never mind. Kiss his shoes."

Danny smirks. There were a few places he'd like to kiss Vlad, but his shoes weren't one of them. "You wouldn't mine me taking off in the middle of our lunch?"

"Who's having lunch? I finished a while ago and the dead cow in your lap is going to waste. It died for nothing because you haven't eaten it."

Danny looked at her tiredly. "Do you want it?"

"Ew! No. Keep that away from me."

Danny smirked and scrunched up his lunch in the bag it came in. "I'm going to go talk to him... I'm going to go talk to him."

"Yeah, you said that twice."

Danny face paled a bit. He was agreeing to go talk to the guy he went on a maybe-date with, and his teacher. This was going to be so embarrassing. No he could live through it. The worst Vlad could do was turn him away, right?

Danny got up, determined face on.

"I'll see you later. I'm going to go talk to him right now."

"Yeah, sure. I'll be around." Sam said, pretty much indifferent and clueless.

Danny jumped down the bleachers. He saw nothing wrong with paying Vlad a small visit. There was more to them than just a student teacher relationship. There was something better. Or at least Danny sure as hell hoped there was. He was nervous but that wasn't slowing him down. Danny was booking it across campus.

The nagging twinge of doubt kept kicking Danny in the ass the whole way but he wasn't stopping for anyone. He was a boy with a purpose. He ran faster with each step and only stopping when he stood outside the main building. Looking up he could see the window of Vlad office. Danny hoped he was up there. It'd be a complete let down if he wasn't there.

Walking inside he was hit with the warm bliss that is central heating. Danny undid zipped his sweater and headed for the stairwell. Again his feet seemed to be moving all one their own because by the time Danny got up the stairs he was at a full on sprint. His heart was pounding and he was a little sweaty, but he didn't stop going. His shoes made hard thumps on the tiled floor as he bolted down the hallway. Danny skidded to a stop, almost falling over into the wall. However, he managed to pick himself up and catch his breath before knocking on the closed office door. There was light under the door so Vlad was in. Danny could feel his heart swell.

The door was opened a moment later by a boy not much taller than Danny, with red brown hair and an angular nose. Danny scrunched his eyebrows. Feeling uncomfortable Danny shifted on his feet, rocking onto his heels. From inside the small office the familiar voice of his teacher called to him,

"Wait out in the hall please. I'll be with you in a moment."

The door was closed a second later not giving him any time to react. Danny stood with his mouth open. That really wasn't what he had been expecting. But after all, Vlad was a professor and had many students. This fact didn't make Danny feel any less embarrassed. He leaned on the opposite wall and watched the door intently. The door remained shut for a good long time. It made Danny really restless. He'd tap his foot, drum his fingers on the wall, or walk in circles. He was willing to do just about anything as long as he was moving.

It felt like forever before Vlad's office door opened again. Danny watched the other boy leave with his books before even thinking of taking a step forward. With a deep breath Danny walked to the door. He poked his head in, unsure of himself.

Vlad was sitting at his desk still, putting some papers away. When he looked up he eyed Danny curiously, as if he was waiting for something. It made Danny blush from embarrassment. He looked down.

Stepping in shyly, Danny ran his fingers through his messy hair. He nudged the door shut quietly with his foot. Suddenly the floor by his feet seemed very interesting because Danny did not want to look up. His concentration would only stay by his feet or right in front of him.

What made him look up was his teacher's voice addressing him. Danny didn't hear what was said but it caught his attention immediately. Looking up he saw the puzzled expression on his teacher's face. Vlad had gotten up from his chair and stood in front of his desk.

Danny cleared his throat, feeling nervous. The intense stare of his teacher was hard to meet. It made Danny look elsewhere, in this case, at Vlad's broad chest. He could see the even breathes the man was taking in and out. It'd be so nice to be pressed against that chest. Danny licked his lips before swallowing. He breathed out shakily. His mind was wandering again...

"I wanted to...talk t-to you..." He didn't exactly come up with anything to say on the way there. So now he was at a loss for words and didn't know what to do.

"Daniel, are you alright?" Vlad interrupted. "You look rather pink."

Danny looked up at his face, eyes shifting over him in interest. "Yes..." He lied. "I'm ok."

Vlad raised an eyebrow. He didn't believe it, Danny knew that. He should learn better than to lie to this guy. Vlad saw right through him for some reason. There was something about him that left him impervious to anything. Vlad seemed indestructible. Danny could see it in his eyes; those gorgeous, conflicting eyes.

He must have been staring for a while because Vlad was looking at him funny. It took a moment to even notice that but Danny picked up on the resounding silence around them. The only actually sound came from the slight hum on the florescent ceiling light. Danny blinked and looked away quickly.

"Daniel, sit down please." Vlad said, breaking the strange hush.

He did. Danny sat quietly and tried to avoid eye contact all together. An anxious blush crossed his face and he was sure if he met Vlad's questioning look again he was going to say or do something stupid. By 'stupid' he meant, blurt out an uncalled for **Fuck me!**

So Danny sat quietly, keeping his mouth glued shut. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Vlad shift and move closer to him. Danny's back stiffened. Vlad was making it a little hard to ignore him. Not intentionally, Danny guessed but it was. Neither spoke, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Of course Danny was sure of immediate embarrassment if he did talk so it was up to Vlad.

"Daniel, you wanted to say something." Vlad leaned against his desk, arms crossed. "Please continue."

He waited another moment to answer.

"I'm not sure how to say it really. I came up here without thinking this through. I probably could have thought of something but I didn't... which was dumb... I do this a lot, come to think of it."Danny rambled. "But right, why I'm here. I needed to ask you... I mean, I needed to know if maybe... if there was a chance that..."

"Allow me to stop you there." Vlad interrupted politely. Danny looked up at the older man, a little confused.

"I thought you wanted me to continue." He said quietly.

"Yes, but I have a feeling that I know what this is about." Vlad pointed out. Danny nodded and waited for him to go on; he should have expected this. "Does this have anything to do about what went on Monday evening?"

Again, Danny nodded his head. Luckily Vlad was covering the conversation for them both.

"I understand how you could be confused. While I believed my actions spoke for themselves," Vlad let himself pause for a second. "I'm sure you are aware, we have gotten closer than a usual 'professional relationship'."

"I know that. I just want to know what that means to you."

"I was getting to that." Vlad interrupted.

"Sorry..." Danny looked up at him. "Go on."

"Thank you," Vlad smirked. "But to answer your question, I shall need to know your impression of me."

"Would that change anything?" Danny asked. He had been hoping for an answer, but no. "I guess my impression of you is that you're a very confusing guy. You won't give me a straight answer about anything. Other than that... You're really nice, and smart, and comes off and an arrogant prick. BUT I still like you?"

Danny made a face that read like _'why the fuck did I say that for?'_ Apparently Vlad was taking the comment well because he didn't even comment on it. He merely smiles a little and said,

"I was genuinely concerned about you after you hit your head. You looked as if you were going to pass out and I figured you shouldn't be left alone. So, I took you to dinner. It wasn't planned to turn into anything more than that."

"So it was something more than just a pity date thing... right?" Danny asked.

"Yes, it was not a _pity date_."

It couldn't have been just Danny's ears playing tricks on him; Vlad sounded a bit hesitant answering.

"So what was it then?" Danny asked.

"You may call it whatever you wish."

Danny shook his head. "I want to know what you'd call it. That's why I'm here. If you give me the option to call it something it's not, I'm only going to get hurt and I will blame you." He didn't have a serious tone but it was completely true.

"You are stubborn." Vlad commented casually. Danny gave him a pleading look. He really wanted to know how Vlad felt and being kept in the black was making him very restless. His leg started to bounce involuntarily. "Alright... I would consider it to be more than what it primarily way. If you wish, you may call it a date. It would be classified as that..."

Danny watched him with interest. He had gotten one question answered, albeit obscure. There were a few things he still would like Vlad to clarify. He slid forward in his seat.

Danny sighed and started to fidget, "This is weird..."

"What is Daniel?"

"Well, if you haven't noticed Vlad, I kind of had a crush on you for a while now."

"I've noticed." Vlad said. It was fair; Danny didn't exactly hide the needy looks he gives his teacher.

"Thanks well... Vlad you said something that night. I didn't notice at first, but thinking back on it I don't know what to think. I said something about how I felt, and you did too, but you were anything but clear about it. So do you care for me or not? I just want to know."

"Yes." was the reply he got.

It was blunt and exactly what Danny wanted to hear.

"Then why didn't you just say that?" Danny blurted. "You knew I liked you and you were 'hoping' for that? What's that suppose to mean? You could have just said so."

"I implied that I appreciate your feelings towards me." Vlad informed him. "And I have similar feelings towards you."

"You are way too cool with all this." Danny stood up, not planning on going anywhere but too squirmy to keep sitting. "I'm eighteen. I'm a teenager. I'm barely legal and you 'appreciate' how I feel? Ok, no, you like, right?"

Vlad chuckled.

"What?" Danny demanded.

"I apologize, Daniel." He said.

"This isn't funny." The amused smirk Vlad had going was not helping anything. He seemed to think Danny's stress was amusing.

"I understand. You are serious about this, as you should be." Vlad stood up straight. "While I may have similar feelings for you, it would be inappropriate for anything to come from this."

"Hey! That's unfair!" Danny frowned, feeling a little dumped.

"Daniel, volume please," He pointed out.

"Is that because you're my teacher? I get that really. I don't care about that."

"Maybe not, but it will reflect badly on us both to have a relationship other than a professional one. At best I would lose the respect of the head of the university, and at worse I could be fired."

"Well, I don't find that fair to me." Danny said, flailing his hands a bit. "We don't have to call it a relationship. We can call it a... a complicated involvement."

"A complicated involvement? Daniel, you do know that is pretty well the same thing." Vlad raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah but it sounds better than, 'dating a teacher'." He was trying to argue his point but it didn't look he was getting very far. Vlad called him stubborn, Danny was proving that true. "You said I could call it what I wanted, so I am. That is if that is what this is... And if so, I say that I'm an adult and I can make my own damn choices. I have my own opinion about all this and I think you're smart enough to get that."

"Are you going to insist on pulling me into a 'complicated involvement'?" Vlad asked.

"Like you said, I'm stubborn. I came to find you because I wanted to know how you felt and what I meant to you. Now that I know, I'm not going to just leave that easily. And you know what Vlad? Being with you would change nothing about how I'd act in class."

"Very well,"

"I expect nothing from you, no benefits or anything like that-what did you say?"

"I said, very well. You need to listen more carefully." Vlad reached out and places his hand on Danny's shoulder. It sent a warm tingle right to his chest. It made Danny smiled brightly. For a moment or two he was at a loss for words. He did manage a flustered snicker.

"So you're serious then?" Danny asked, getting over his shock. Vlad smiled at him. He looked so amused.

"Yes Daniel, I'm serious."

"Ok!" Danny smile couldn't be bigger. The next thing he did couldn't have been helped. Out of nowhere Danny threw his arms around Vlad's neck and hugged him tightly. It took them both off guard, but that didn't seem to matter. Vlad returned the hug, letting Danny nuzzle into the strong shoulder under his cheek. This was the second time Danny was able to get inside Vlad's personal space. It was perfect there. The older man was warm and made him feel safe. If it was possible to stay there forever he would have, but fate had other plans today. Just as Danny was getting cozy cuddled up to Vlad there was a knock on the door. Danny let go of Vlad reluctantly and stepped away.

"We'll finish this later Daniel, I promise." Vlad said calmly. He ruffled Danny's hair and gave him a sweet smile.

"I'm holding you to that." He was sure his face couldn't be redder.

Danny moved over to the desk and scribbled down his cell number while Vlad took care of the person at the door. The new comer was another student, a third year by his age. Danny smiled, not bothered at all. He left his number for Vlad and went to the door. "I'll see you in class then."

"Yes, you will." Vlad said as Danny made his way out. "Thank you for stopping by."

"Bye."

Danny left with the desire to skip down the hallway. After a few steps he gave in completely and started to do a little dance of joy. Danny spun and took off jumping and running down the hall towards. If he leapt any higher his head might have gone through the ceiling.

Danny kicked the door open to the stair well and all but flew down to the main floor. He did stop running like a freak when he got out side. He didn't need to get any weird looks. Danny was weird enough, dancing across the school lot like a mad man wasn't going to help him with that. On his way out the building, his cell buzzed. He'd gotten a text. Danny zipped up his sweater before taking out his phone.

'_It's laundry day Danny. Hurry up while there's no one here' _

Danny snorted a laugh.

Some time past three, Danny found himself lying on top of a row of washing machines. They rattled and shook under his back and were starting to make him feel sea sick.

"Whoa..." Danny said, his voice vibrating. He felt like he was going to throw up.

Sam looked up from putting clothes in the drier. "What the hell are you doing on there?"

"Nothing," Danny laughed. He was pretty sure he was going to fall off the machines soon. Yeah he wasn't technically suppose to be up there but who cared? Danny was over the moon, somewhere orbiting Mars.

At the time Sam and Danny were the only two in the laundry room for their dorm building. Each building had one laundry room with about a dozen washers and driers each, divided between a couple hundred people. So being alone in the room was pretty rare unless it was 2am or mid afternoon. Even now there were a few machines with loads going, which other people had thrown in and left. But Sam was ready to throw those piles of clothes into the hall. Danny wouldn't put it past her.

Today particularly, Sam wanted to avoid contact with anyone other than Danny. For their laundry day she brought all her clothes, towels and bed sheets to try and do as many loads of laundry as possible. She even convinced Danny to do the same. So they shoved everything they could into all the washers, making it impossible for anyone else to do any laundry for the next hour at least. It was inconsiderate but neither of the two teens cared very much. As a matter of fact, Danny was too happy to care about anything.

Sam must have noticed because she looked at him and asked,

"You seem happy."

"I do?" Danny asked trying to sit up on a moving washer, and having trouble.

"You look like you could throw up a rainbow. What pixie dust have you been huffing?" Sam joked. It made Danny laugh and slide off onto the floor. He straightened himself trying to feel a little less wobbly. It was an odd sensation.

"Don't be daft, I'm fine." He unzipped his sweater and threw it in with Sam's load of laundry. "I'm just in a good mood."

"I can see that," She said frowning at him for putting his sweater in with her clothing. "But there's a difference between happy and shitting unicorns and sprinkles."

"I am not!"

Sam crossed her arms and looked at him.

"I'm not." Danny defended. He picked up his laundry basket off the floor and tossed it up on the washers. "I just might have gotten a lucky break today with this guy..."

Danny knew better than to tell Sam everything about what happened with Vlad but he was so happy he wanted to say something. He did trust Sam though so telling her a little hint couldn't hurt.

"Oh my God, you had sex!" She shouted faking shock.

"What? No." Danny said with exhaustion.

"I'm kidding."

"You're nuts... And why did you sound do stunned at that thought?" Danny asked, genuinely offended. "I might not have had sex before but so what? Do you think I can't get laid?"

"Or something..." She looked at him funny. "What? You've never been that close to someone before. It's hard to imagine you doing it."

"I could." Danny said with a pout. As a matter of fact, he'd love to, with his gorgeous teacher.

"Well when you do, let me know."

"You want to know about my sex life?" He asked, not taking her seriously for one second.

"It's not high on list of things to learn," She pointed out. "But you'd be able to rub it in Tucker's face."

"Maybe I don't want to tell you now after being made fun of. I finally meet a nice guy and I get abused."

"Dramatic much? And I was hardly making fun of you. I was teasing."

Danny stuck out his tongue at her. "Well you can suck it. I have a boyfriend and you will never meet him."

"Now that's mean. Are you ashamed of him or something? I want to know who he is." Sam complained.

"You'd scare him off. Besides, we agreed to keep it quiet." Danny obviously wanted to tell her but he didn't think she'd take it very well. Sam could be judgmental towards... everyone and everything.

"So he's ashamed of you then." She said.

"No he's not. He's... oh how to say this without begging hit... he's older." Danny finally offered. "And it's a little weird."

"How much older is he; a few years older or 'silver fox' older?"

"Oh I'm not telling you that." Danny said shaking his head. He'd give away a few clues but not the whole thing. And furthermore, it was entertaining to make Sam have to guess. It drove her insane. Likewise for Danny but this was his own secret. "So, do our laundry and be happy about it."

Sam laughed and fed the drier quarters. Once again Danny flopped on top of the machines. It was such a dumb thing to do that he received a sock to the face, a dirty, old, floor sock to the face.


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: uhmm, I just blame this on my own laziness. I didn't get a chance to work on this chapter for a long time and then kept putting it off. I'm really sorry...

Thumbs up for complicated love affairs!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to review, I love feedback.

Chapter 7: Visiting Hours

Danny bounced his knee impatiently. Holding a pen between his fingers he rapidly beat it against the back of his text book. Every few seconds he would check his cell begging for time to go faster. It was barely quarter after eleven, class had just started and he was already praying for a way out. Maybe the ceiling could collapse or a fire could break out in the science building, something. At this point anything would be a blessing. A swarm of bees would be more exciting than class.

Danny sighed and sank back in his chair. His class, intro to sociology, had barely started for today and already he wanted to run for the hills. The class itself could bore you to tears, not to mention that the teacher was an absolute twit. Half the time it was like she doesn't know what she's talking about, and the other half was just her off topic ramblings for the day. How some people got to be teachers was beyond Danny's comprehension. Today they were supposed to be discussing the final assignment before the exam, but no... That didn't seem to be happening at all. At the moment the professor had gone off on a rant about city parking. Danny's questions to himself was, _'who the hell cares?'_ He rolled his head to the side, wishing he could just vanish. For a while he was determined to make it through the hour just to make sure he didn't miss anything, but now it really didn't matter. He doubted highly he'd miss much. Danny stopped his pen and put his textbook into his bag. He was getting the hell out of there. If he was quiet and went out the back door, no one would have to know. He made it out into the hallway as quickly and as quietly as possible, only drawing the attention of one student because Danny stepped on his foot by accident.

Out in the hallway Danny slumped down into an empty chair. He yawned and put his book bag down on the floor. It was still morning and classes were going on so not a lot of people were around walking the halls. This was also one of the days Sam doesn't have to get up for class, so she would most likely be still in bed. Danny pulled a foot up over his knee and relaxed. Leaning on the arm rest of the chair he started to fiddle with the pen again. Sure he could have been being lazy in the classroom but he couldn't take another minute of listening to that woman's voice. He clicked the pen over and over. This time he wasn't feeling bored, but more so just restless. He clicked the pen again and managed to somehow get ink on his hand. Danny looked at it for a minute then started to go over the line until it was long and thick. He stayed at it for maybe ten or fifteen minutes before his palm was covered in squiggles, dots and lines. Honestly, Danny was no artist, in any sense of the word. However, he was happy with his work and continued onto the top of his hand. Having a bit of nerd fun he squiggles the more major constellation on his hand and along his wrist. Getting a little carried away though, he scribbled a certain boyfriend's name on his inner wrist in thick black letters. That would be a little hard to explain later on but at the moment he didn't exactly realise it. And besides, he had on a long sleeve shirt. The name could be easily hidden.

When people started to trickle in for their next class Danny stopped what he was doing. It never occurred to him that the whole hour passed by. He tossed the pen in his pocket, rolled down his sleeves and picked up his bag. He could skip next class too. The notes would be online.

The sudden urge to call on a certain someone had just hit. Despite it not being a particularly good idea, Danny wandered towards the office building none the less. Ever since he and Vlad had started this little run around relationship, logic had gone completely out the window – for Danny anyway. Either he was ready to just come out with it all and spill his lies to someone, or he was ready to jump at Vlad right in his office where someone would, no doubt, over hear them going at it. For the sake of his good health and his life Danny was really restraining his urges.

Like any teenager, sex was frequently on his mind, if not always, and while the two technically have never slept together yet and have done nothing more than a kiss Danny still loved to think about what if they ever do. He'd beat his ass on it that it'd be amazing.

This was only a bad thing when they were alone in Vlad's office together or on the occasion where they _just so happen to run into each other downtown_. While this is perfectly fine for them, Danny still allows himself a little indulgence. After all he gets to tease his boyfriend in class by throwing winks at him and passing in notes with his homework. Vlad has frequently scolded him for this but Danny finds his irritated expressions rather enjoyable. It was almost funny in a way and Danny liked to have fun when he could. He felt Vlad needed to have a good smile now and then. He always looked so serious.

Today, like any other, Danny found himself standing before Vlad's closed office door unannounced. By now Vlad probably has developed a Danny-sense which could detect him within a twenty foot radius, or just recognizes Danny's bad habits. Either way, he wasn't surprised when Danny knocked on the door and poked his head in.

Danny brushed his long bangs back and smiled.

"Hey, Mr. Masters." He said with a slight hint of amusement.

"Daniel..." Vlad answered looking up from a stack of papers. "Come in and close the door."

Danny did as told. He stepped over to the desk and leans down on it. Vlad looked oddly at his hand for a moment before looking up. The questions of what he did was left unasked, he didn't need to know. The older man because quickly interested in the playful smile he was getting from the boy leaning on his desk.

Danny was indeed giving him a very bright and teasing smile, looking at him through dark hair. His bright blue eyes were speaking all on their own today. Vlad glanced back down at his papers.

"I see you are not in class again. You have Literature this hour... Skipping class is a good way to fail Daniel. I hope you know this." He said. Danny knew better than to bark at him for being condescending. He knew Vlad a little better. When the man said something like this, even if it was a scolding tone, he was only being thoughtful for his wellbeing. So, Danny scrunched up his nose and sank down into the free chair.

"It was so boring." He whined childishly. "You have no idea how stupid my teacher is."

"I can assure you I do. I work with her. Now bored, I can definitely believe this. You have ink all over your hands."

"Oh yeah..." Danny rubbed his arm trying to blur out the ink using the shirt sleeve.

"So..." Vlad started slowly. "What brings you here today Daniel? It's not that I don't enjoy your company, it's just that I have papers to grade."

"I just wanted to come see you... haven't been able to be around you lately." Danny sat back. He knew he wasn't getting sent anywhere any time soon, so he might as well get comfortable.

"You saw me yesterday in class."

"Not what I mean." Danny said dryly. "That's class, this is different. Here I actually get to talk to you and spend time with you. I like getting to do that."

Vlad smiled at him softly. His smile was something even Danny rarely saw, but it was worth the wait. Danny couldn't help but return it and lean forward onto the desk. With his elbows propped up on the wood and his chin in hand he watched the older man intently. It was times like this that Danny felt like pouncing over the table between them and hugging the man. Often enough whole afternoons could pass this way between them. Hours would go by with the two just talking, or Danny just watching Vlad work. He never minded the stares or anything. Today was no different, nothing special but perfectly wonderful all the same. Danny sat quiet looking at Vlad's work. Every so often Vlad would look up or reach over to touch his hand. It was so simple, but so fantastic.

Currently the two had fallen into a little silent cloud. Danny leaned his head down on the desk. His black hair hung around his head and covered his eyes. It really was a tangled mess. Vlad's large hand calmly brushed it back, softly grazing over Danny's forehead.

Danny rolled his head to the side to look at him. "Am I in the way?" He asked. Vlad shook his head.

"Of course not my boy,"

"Well, I'd hate for you to kick me out for being in the way."

"Now Daniel, you know I wouldn't kick you out." Vlad put his pen down. "I enjoy you being here."

"Besides winter break, I get to hang out here again next term too." Danny commented. "Which reminds me...What's going to be on the exam?"

He gave a really goofy smile and in return was met with a very unimpressed frown.

"You know I can't tell you that." Vlad answered in a bored monotone.

"Please?"

No luck. Nothing could crack this nut. The shell was too tough.

"Fine..." Danny sat up. "You know... I'll miss you over the holidays."

"You will not think of me much, I'm sure." Vlad said. The very idea made Danny mope.

"Yeah I will. I'll think you all the time. Honestly, going home has been on my mind quite a bit. I'm not going to get to see you and that suck!"

"Now Daniel, you do not live too far away. Besides, you're an adult. There are things you just have to deal with." Yes it was a cold thing to be told, but this was Vlad – he's a cold man. Sometimes it'd be nice if the man came with subtitles. That way Danny would always know what he really meant.

"Yeah whatever... so you won't miss me." Danny said crossing his arms. Vlad looked at him, almost shocked. "What?"

"Now Daniel... You know I am very fond of you. Do not start to think otherwise."

"So, you will miss me?" Danny received a nod of confirmation. It was a big relief. "That's all I wanted to hear."

Vlad leaned forward, clasping his hands together. He was hesitant for a moment. Normally a quiet Vlad wasn't strange but this was different. He looked like he was thinking very hard about something. Danny sat there watching him, confused. Finally he spoke,

"Daniel," He started. "Would it make you feel any better if you were to spend a little time with me before you left? I'd like to have to over after the exam before you go home."

"Like... at your place?" Danny asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes," Vlad nodded. "My townhouse is private. We would be able to have supper together the night before you depart for your holiday."

Danny shot up out of his chair, leading forward over the desk. Their heads almost banged together. "I'd love to." His smile couldn't have been larger, it made Vlad chuckle a bit. Danny gave a small laugh too. He could feel Vlad's breath on him. The two had maybe hugged a grand total of five times over the course of their relationship. So to have their faces this close was very new, and Danny found himself feeling shy of all things. His lip twitched up in a silly lopsided grin and he backed up a bit.

"I mean, yeah. That'd be cool..." He said, pretending to be calm. Obviously Vlad wasn't fooled, but that was fine.

"I am glad you think so."

Danny nodded. In his pocket, his phone buzzed from a text. _'Damn...'_ He thought. "Uh... that can wait."

Unfortunately it didn't matter at all because there was also a knock on the door. _'Of course...'_ There were always many interruptions during their time together and Danny had gotten use to them, but he didn't have to like them. Vlad excused himself for a moment and told whoever it was at the door to wait, and that he was meeting with another student.

Danny rolled his eyes. He wouldn't say the interruptions bothered him. He was just a greedy teenager who wanted to hog Vlad all to himself.

Vlad closed the door and turn to face Danny. He stepped closer and quietly spoke,

"I apologize, Daniel."

"No, it's ok. You're busy. I'll just be back soon anyway." Danny got up.Suddenly feeling incredibly confident, he stepped close to Vlad and stood up on toes till so their noses almost touched. Vlad looked a little surprised, not as much though as Danny thought he would. However, he coyly places a hand on his chest and smiled. "I'll see you in class." He said, trying to sound as sexy as he could.

Danny had never really tried before so he was really hoping for the best here. If anything, he was trying his best not to sound creepy or needy. But with it said, Danny didn't know how long he could hold his composure. So, stepping back he picked up his book bag and quickly went to the door. He thanked Vlad for sparing the time to talk and excused himself.

Vlad nodded, still partially unfazed by Danny's actions, but replied with "Anytime..."

Danny left the two in the office and headed down the hallway. If it was at all possible, Danny was both incredible pleased with himself but also very disappointed. He was ecstatic with how bold he acted but also very upset that he didn't just kiss Vlad and get it over with. He had the chance but let it just slip by. Damn...

Well, he was going to get another chance very soon. Another week or so, depending on the exam schedule, and he was going to get a nice dinner alone with Vlad. Danny was so happy he could start doing cartwheels down the hall, and he probably would have if there was no one around who'd see. Danny was impulsive but he wasn't nuts. He hoped no one thought that, especially Vlad. Though he did seem a little confused by Danny's actions. Did it confuse him or turn him off? Did he like it or not? Sure Danny was new at this but he couldn't have been that bad... right?

Taking a deep breath he left the building. His self confidence someone fizzled down into a draining paranoia wither in a few quick minutes. The cold winter air hit him and instantly froze him to the bone. Danny shivered but felt better for some reason. The cold was helping him use up all his extra energy that would have been used for an anxiety attack. Like always, Danny didn't see his error until long after the incident occurred. And like always in these situations Danny found himself doing the one thing he always does – going to talk to Sam. She was going to do one of two things: give him useful advice, or bust his balls. He welcomed either, but really was hoping for some decent advice at this point.

The trek over to the dorms wasn't overly long, but it was cold. December wasn't exactly being pleasant this year. One thing Sam would say, if he complained about the cold, would be some smarty-pants remark about global warming causing colder winters and that it was just going to get worse. Then Danny would call her a tree hugger and she's start giving him a scientific lecture, and then his brain would hurt.

Danny quickly unlocked the door to the dorm building shook. It was nice and warm in the building, usually too warm, but after coming in from the cold it was just right. Even though it was warm, climbing the stairs was a challenge. You know when you're really cold and it feels light your legs are frozen and they never want to cooperate? Yeah, that's what was going on. But despite that he made it to Sam's floor. He could hear muffled talking and music from behind random doors, but from behind Sam's he could hear her music _loud_ and clear. He kicked at the door knowing it's the only way she'd hear him.

She opened the door looking bitter and unimpressed. A moment passed where she did nothing but look him over and frown.

"You were outside without your coat again..." Sam pointed out. "Get in here you dumb ass."

Danny stepped in, thanking her as he did so. The room was constantly dark and smelled of freshly made coffee. Sam had certainly done wonders on the small room. It definitely had her charm. The walls were literally wallpapered in band, movie posters and photos. Her bedding was all black. Black mesh was hanging in front of the open closet and pumpkin string lights, the ones found around Halloween, were strung up around the room. It was Sam in a nutshell.

Sam took an extra mug off a shelf above the desk. She didn't bother offering him coffee, instead she just shoved it into his hands. It was hot and black, but she added a little sugar to it first because that's how Danny liked it.

"Thanks..." Danny said sitting down on her bed. He dropped his bag on the floor and kicked off his shoes. Sam, dressed in a very baggy t-shirt and black sweatpants, flopped back in the desk chair.

"You're welcome." She answered. "So, what's up? You haven't been around lately."

"Oh, sorry about that... I got busy with assignments and extra help."

"Right, you still have to do that. That's got to suck... your teacher is a prick for making you go."

"No, I don't mind. I could always use it. You know how badly I do in school." Which was a very fair point, Danny was never a great student. If Sam or Tucker hadn't tutored him, he might have failed a class or two back in high school. "But that's all going to be done soon. Classes are almost over, and I think I actually did well this time."

"Good. If you fail, I'll kick your ass." Sam said, blowing at the steam coming off her coffee. Honestly, she would. This wasn't a joke in the least.

Danny looked down at the mug of coffee. It felt nice on his cold hands. Gently blowing on the steam he went to take a sip.

"So, what did you do?" Sam blurted out. Danny, in surprise, sucked back the hot coffee. It burned his mouth and throat, but he had to swallow or else he'd spit it out on the floor. He coughed and fanned his tongue.

"What the hell Sam?" He yelled. Danny made little noises of discomfort.

"Oh Muffin~" Sam teased. "But you heard me, what did you do?"

"How do you know I did anything?" Danny asked. He received another one of her unimpressed glances.

"I know you far too well for that crap, spill." She ordered.

Danny had little choice in the matter now. He told her from the beginning, leaving out the parts of who he was with at the time. So his abridge version went as such:

'He had been asked out on an innocent dinner date by his secret boyfriend, and then he came onto him because he thought it was the right thing to do and then took off because they were interrupted.'

Sam listened to him, nodding at times. When the story was over and put down her coffee mug. She got to her feet and put her hands on her hips.

"Get up." She instructed.

"...why?" Danny asked, confused.

"Because... I'm going to kick you in the nuts for being so stupid." The horrible thing was she was dead serious. Danny crossed his legs and looked away.

"I'm good, thank you. A burnt mouth was enough for one day."

"Danny, I know you think there's no down side to any dissensions you make but, fuck, you're going to get yourself hurt like this."

Danny looked down again. "So you think it was a bad idea."

"You're going to give him the wrong impression. I mean, I don't know him or anything; you never talk about him that much, but from what you've said he's older and really could just be looking to mess around with a young gullible boy." Sam pointed at him with a warning finger. She did not look happy with him at all. "You're a freaking eighteen-year-old boy. You're away at school, alone and "dating" an older guy who you won't introduce to your friends. How do you think that looks?"

"Very, very bad..." Danny said meekly. "I know that-"

"Do I have to tell your sister on you?" Sam threatened.

"Fuck! Please don't!" Danny really didn't want Jazz to know any of this. She'd yell and would be far madder than his parents ever would. Not to mention he'd probably wind up in one of her psychology papers. Jazz was one of Danny's weak points. She did a better job at looking after him than his own mom. Having Jazz disappointed with him, or worse mad, he'd feel so guilty and stupid. Danny threw on his best hurt puppy dog face. It never worked completely but it helped void the threat. Sam rolled her eyes. Crossing her arms she gave in, for now.

"Fine you big baby. I won't tell Jazz, yet."

"Thanks Sam, that's all I ask. Really it's not like I'm sleeping with him or anything. I swear." Danny was indeed being honest. "If, and that's a big if... If me and... my boyfriend, do last long enough to see _that_ happening, then I'll introduce him to you."

_Well, maybe not really but shhhh!_

Danny really would say anything to calm down the angry Sam-monster. He shifted uncomfortable on the bed, scooting back till he hit the wall. Sam looked at him for a moment then sighed.

"Fine Danny, I just hope you know what you've gotten yourself into." She commented, sitting back down. The two sat quiet. There wasn't any silence do to the music Sam still had going, and wouldn't turn down for anyone. And hell, people have tried. Including the floor's RA, but nope.

It was a while before either one spoke to one another. And it was Danny first, saying something still kind of stupid.

"I'm still going to go on this date you know." Danny received a bored look from his friend.

"Yeah, I know." She replied. "No one can talk you out of doing anything, You're stubborn like that. Hope your _boyfriend_ can handle that."

"He's just fine with it." Danny said. He would gladly defend Vlad. "He happens to find me very sweet and honest, and we have very adult conversations. I think you'd like him."

"Hmm... ok. Why's that?"

"He likes literature, and chess, and classical music. He isn't a fan of video games and pizza. He's very formal and well spoken and treats me with respect and kindness. He's gentle and listens to everything I have to say." Danny could ramble on for hours about Vlad. He knew so much about him and yet so little. It made him really happy to go on about Vlad like this. There was a big smile on his face and every so often Danny would laugh and look off with a dorky expression on his face. Sam snorted at how love struck he was acting but he didn't care. After a good solid five minutes of babbling he was finally stopped when an eraser bounced off his head.

"I get it, shut up." Sam said.

"What? You asked." Danny tossed it back at her, managing to land it right in her coffee mug. It made a _sploosh_ that was barely audible over the music. Sam looked into her coffee mug then at Danny, then back at her coffee.

"You're getting me a fresh cup." She held out the mug to him. Danny took it willingly but was still kicked from the room, not to be let back in until he washed the mug.

A/N: Wow! I finished this chapter. Amazing! It only took forever. Also, I was really lazy with the editing so please don't go pointing out my spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm asking nicely.


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